Foreign xChange
by Vathara
Summary: Yugi, Tea, Seto and Mokuba visit Bayville... chaos ensues. Crossover with XMen Evolution.
1. Chapter 1

****

Foreign xChange

A/N: Yu-Gi-Oh doesn't belong to me. Nor do the X-Men, in any variant. No infringement intended. 

Continuity notes: For X-Men Evolution, sometime after Dr. McCoy moves to the Institute but well before "Day of Reckoning". For YGO, some unspecified time after Battle City, when things have pretty much gotten back to normal in Domino City (if that's AU, oh well) and Yugi's group of acquaintances (except for Solomon Mouto) have been filled in on the Yugi/Yami details. Evolution is AU - no Apocalypse, and I used a few details out of the original comics. "Regular speech", //telepathy//. 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Spiky hair and a bad attitude._ Wolverine sniffed the air, stepping silently through the woods around the Xavier Institute._ Not much to go on, Charles._

//The contact was brief.// Professor Xavier's telepathic voice held echoes of caution, a taut worry for his students. //Stay on your guard, Logan. Whoever this mutant is, he's very good at shielding himself... and his intent is all too hostile.//

__

I could use a little workout. Crouched in concealing brush, Wolverine drew a deeper breath, sorting scents of maple leaves, pine sap, hot tar from the nearby road that led up to the Institute gates....

And a faint, drifting taste of ozone. 

__

Gotcha. 

//Are you certain?//

__

I know you can't pick up the scent, Charles. Wolverine snuck through the trees, working his way closer to the small, spike-haired silhouette. Whoever it was seemed to have paused just out of sight of the road, indecisive, hands moving with a stiff-paper rattle that sounded like... shuffling cards. _But anything that smells_ human _and_ ozone _is either a nut with an ungrounded battery, or a psychic._

//I'll call the others-//

__

No. The first heat of berserker rage coiled around Wolverine's consciousness. Deliberate rage, usually locked in the darkest corner of his mind, now unchained to guard him from the unknown mutant's manipulations. Raw rage that would buy him time the others wouldn't have; time Xavier could use to measure the psychic's strength, and try to strike against it. 

Rage that sent him springing out of cover, hurtling into the smaller form, slamming them both up against a massive oak. Cards scattered like multicolored leaves.

//Logan! Don't kill him!//

__

Go away, Charles. "Talk!" 

Pinned to rough bark, one adamantium claw on either side of his black leather collar, wide violet eyes stared up at Wolverine. The air was filled with surprise, fear-

__

Ozone.

And violet shock became ruby challenge. 

"Let's play a game." 

~*~*~*~*~  
//It's done.//

Yugi Mouto found himself on one knee on leaf-covered ground, beside the now-unconscious stranger. Not a tall man, though the adult had at least two or three inches on him. He'd looked a _lot_ bigger with sunlight glinting off his blades. //Yami, you didn't-//

//No, aibou. He's not... seriously injured.// The spirit's thoughts had a flavor of rough humor, not the vicious satisfaction that followed one of the pharaoh's Punishment Games. //Still, I doubt he'll try that again.// Humor faded into concern. //Are you all right?// 

Gathering the last of his deck, Yugi felt carefully along the edges of his collar. //I'm okay. I don't - think he meant to hurt me....//

"Logan!" A tall, dark-haired teen ran in from the road, one hand raised to odd ruby sunglasses. "Is everything all right? We heard a-"

His gaze fell on the unconscious man, and sneakers scrabbled to a halt.

"Scream." Hand still by his glasses, the teen looked at Yugi. "What happened?" 

"I don't know!" Yugi blinked as other teenagers raced into view; a redhead in jeans as pretty as Mai Valentine and a blue-lipped brunette with a platinum streak and a green Goth outfit. He slipped his dueling deck back into a pocket, quelling Yami's urge to have it out and ready. He didn't _know_, exactly; Yami blocked him from the more vicious Games. Though the details would filter in later. "I think - maybe he tripped?"

"Logan?" The Goth muttered, disbelieving. "Trip?" 

"Rogue." The teen in charge glanced away from her, looked a question at the redhead. "Jean?"

Green eyes creased in concentration, and Yugi felt a prickling at the edge of his mind.

//Telempath.// A flicker of interest from Yami; Yugi sensed the spirit settle back farther in his soul room, concealing the link between them. //Interesting.//

__

Interesting? Yugi hid a gulp. _Oh boy._

But Jean's face eased, and she shook her head. "I think he's just lost, Scott." She smiled. "What's your name?" 

"Yugi. Yugi Mouto. Have you seen Tea? She's about your height, brown hair, soft blue eyes." Yugi waved his hand as close as he could get to Tea's height. "We were supposed to take the bus all the way. But the day seemed so nice, and we had a map, so Tea thought we could just walk - but we didn't know how far things are in this country! And then we hit a branch of the road, and she went _that_ way and I went _this_ way, and we were supposed to meet up ten minutes from now-" 

"Whoa, whoa." Scott finally took his hand down from his glasses. "Slow down. In this country? Where were you going?" 

"Well-" 

"Somebody get the serial number off that tank...." 

Rogue's gloved hands gripped Logan's, helped the dazed man lurch to his feet. "Logan, what hit you?" 

Logan shook his head, as if shaking off water. Squinted against the sunlight. Swept his gaze across the bystanders-

Backed up. Fast. 

"Whatever you do, don't pick on the little guy...." 

And passed out. 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Not now!_

Again Janus felt that searchlight beam of mental power sweep out, seeking him. He'd been able to throw his psychic signature once, making it seem as if he were outside the Institute gates, rather than here on the mown grass of Xavier's own backyard. He might not manage it twice.

The leather-jacketed man wrapped psychic distraction around himself like armor. _No one important, just one of the students._ Just another of the many young mutants playing or watching a relatively sedate, strictly power-free game of softball. Just one more quiet nudge to a few chosen onlookers, barely noticed, save for that one brief instant when they _knew_-

-And he fed.

__

Oh, such delicious hatred.

No one hated like a mutant. He should know. 

Janus moved away from his latest feed, letting the blonde saunter back towards the game. She was one of his touched, now; he could feel her presence in his mind, her hate for her drunken father seeping into his veins like warming blood. 

__

Frail, for all you want to seem made of steel. Poor little butterfly, trying to be a wasp. Not like my new tracker. Strong, so strong... he might last months.

Or less. The hunger had been increasing lately. The darkness he freed in his subjects' minds grew quicker, commanded more of their actions, eventually driving his touched to destroy themselves.

__

Weak fools. 

But his fools, now. The butterfly would play her part. The part a butterfly did best; distraction.

And Xavier, for all his power, would suspect nothing.

Now for his last target.

__

A human. 

Disappointing, really. Humans never hated so deeply. It'd be like stale bread, compared to the succulent feast he'd already garnered. 

__

But oh, the rewards that will come.... 

After all, the man might be human, but he was also one Janus' touched had heard was going to upgrade some of the mansion's computer systems. The same systems Xavier had used to find and gather such tasty treats here.

__

Get inside that, and I can feast forever.

And he was almost in reach. All Janus needed was a few more feet, a few more....

__

Contact!

Feral grin stretching nearly as wide as his spiked purple hair, Janus reached into the target's mind and _shoved_-

And almost fell on his face. 

Cold blue eyes stared down at him. Eyed the fingers touching a trench-coated arm, as if they were so many larvae from the depths of swamp muck. "What do you think you're doing?" 

"Ah - nothing - sorry, tripped-" Janus backed off, pasting a smile on his face. Seto Kaiba's cold annoyance rippled through his mind, blasting like Arctic wind. _Contact. I have contact._ He reached again, searching for the darkness that was the heart of every mind....

"Mr. Kaiba?" A tall, elegant black woman with a snowfall of hair approached his target.

"Ms. Monroe." Seto inclined his head. "I believe I've seen as much as I need to here." 

And walked away.

__

That's not possible. Janus stood, gaping. He'd touched Seto's skin. Seeped in the black toxin from his glands that would open a living mind. Reached in, digging for the evil that would let him control this human as he had so many others. He was so _close_....

//Where are you?//

__

Xavier. 

Skulking under illusion, Janus fled.

~*~*~*~*~  
"I've never seen a computer programmer interested in the Institute's physical layout before."

Seto Kaiba let a hint of grim smile curl his lips as they walked into Charles Xavier's Institute for the Gifted. Evidently Ms. Ororo Monroe's strikingly exotic looks hid a competent mind. "Then your programmers weren't doing their job." 

"How so?"

Hmm. Not a challenge, as he would have expected from Summers; Xavier's head student seemed to think he had a personal say in who walked through the Institute doors. Ms. Monroe might not like his attitude, but she was truly interested in knowing. Rare, from someone who wasn't a computer expert. "Every system has a back door." Seto gestured over his shoulder, toward the portal that led to the institute grounds. "Yours has several." 

"Physical assault?" White brows lifted, surprised. Considered the idea as they headed for the front of the building. "None of the students would attack the systems."

__

But you think someone else might. Interesting. Seto mentally filed that fact for further investigation. The Institute had a reputation as a good customer to go with their intriguing programming problem, or he wouldn't be here. But there were a few odd rumors floating around about Xavier. "Your students are interacting with the holograms directly. Accidents happen." 

Seto lost her reply in a sudden shiver, a sense of _not-alone_. A jangling in the edge of his senses, as if he'd strapped on a duel-disk for the fight of his life.

Ridiculous. He wasn't one of those odd souls possessed by a Millennium Item. He fought his deck with skill and memory and a skeptic's reluctant belief in the heart of the cards, not the Shadow Realm's ancient magic. He certainly couldn't _feel_ an opponent nearby.

And even if he could, what would Yugi Mouto be doing here?

"Mr. Kaiba?" 

__

Focus. "Where's Mokuba?" Odd rumors or not, he wasn't leaving his little brother out of reach again. One soul-stealing monster out to take over his company by kidnapping the Kaiba heir was enough. 

"Probably finishing off Kurt at Duel Monsters." Ororo's smile had an honest ease now. "I think it's the first time I've seen our elf that caught up in a game that didn't need a joystick. We had no idea you were _that_ Seto Kaiba." Tolerant amusement sparked in blue eyes. 

Seto knew that look. He'd seen it, far more vicious, on the board of Kaiba Corp. before they'd tried to take his company. And his life. _It's just a game. Why waste your time?_

To hell with them. Or better, to the Shadow Realm. Strategy, tactics, fallback plans; learning to muster the most unusual of allies to obliterate your opponents. That was Duel Monsters. That was what had kept him alive. 

That, and the hacking skills that could breach any system on this planet.

__

Including this one. What are you hiding? "Don't underestimate Wagner. His deck's monster-heavy. He'll learn." Lips formed a grim curve of amusement. "Though if Pryde ever takes up the game, she'll eat him alive." 

"Kitty?" Ororo looked shocked.

Seto nodded, a mere dip of head. "She'd be good." 

Why, Kaiba couldn't say exactly. It wasn't as if the brunette had expressed any interest in the cards. Or much of anything, in his hearing, beyond boys, dancing the night away, and Astrophysics.

But she had what it took. The sharp eye that could see strategies in just a gleam of a card, the quick mind to calculate the odds, the reckless daring that could risk it all on her skill and her deck.

That, and something more. The spark he'd seen in the best duelists. Even - especially - the most unlikely best. Solomon. Wheeler. Yugi. 

And - dimly, vaguely - himself.

"I'll let her know you think so, then." Ororo turned toward the sound of a commotion near the front entrance. "Ah. They're here."

__

They? Seto frowned. There was a familiar cadence to some of those voices, even speaking English. _It can't be._

"Tea!" A swift patter of sneakers overhead. Rubber slid and screeched as Mokuba hit the main staircase running. Kurt Wagner wasn't far behind; a lithe teen, cards still in hand, dark hair almost as long as Mokuba's, blue eyes with an odd glint of yellow in some lights. "Yugi! How did you get here?"

"Well," an all-too-familiar, irrepressibly cheerful voice started, "First we took a plane - actually, a couple of planes - then there was a bus from the airport, then we sort of got lost...."

Seto winced. _It is._

"These are friends of yours from Japan?" Wagner jumped in, perching on the banister. "Whoa! What happened to Logan?" 

It was hard to tell behind those ruby lenses, but Seto would have sworn he saw Scott Summers shoot an odd glance Yugi's way. "I think he ran into something that disagreed with him. We'll... handle it later." 

"But how did you get _here?_" Mokuba persisted. "Are Tristan and Joey here too?"

__

Oh god, not the mutt too.

"No, they're spending the break with Serenity," Tea Gardner spoke up, hands dancing as she set down her plain luggage. "Yugi's Grandpa met Professor Xavier in Europe a while back. The professor wanted some Japanese students here for a cultural exchange experience, and I wanted the chance to check out some dance schools here in New York, so here we are." 

__

Damn globetrotting Solomon Mouto... who'd have thought a game-shop owner would have so many contacts. Who doesn't he know?

And Ororo was looking at him very oddly. "Friends of yours?"

__

Not a chance. "We should get in to your system-" 

"Wait 'til I tell Seto!" A _skreek_ of sneaker sole heralded the appearance of a twelve-year-old in jeans and a striped red-and-white shirt, blue bandanna flapping over his shoulder. "Hey, big brother! Tea and Yugi are here!" 

~*~*~*~*~  
Logan's arm loosely draped around her, Rogue propping him up from the other side, Jean Grey frowned at Seto. Outwardly the glowering man in the blue trench coat was calm and cool as Storm about to summon lightning, but to a telepath, hostility was practically vibrating off him.

Though maybe that was spillover from Logan. Wolverine was awake enough to put one foot in front of the other, even if his growls still hadn't approached pre-coffee intelligibility.

__

No, it's definitely Seto, Jean thought, seeing the programmer's lips mutter something. //What's he saying, Professor?// 

Xavier's mind-voice was distinctly dry. //I'm not entirely certain... but I believe it may be the Japanese equivalent of "I hate my life".//

//They know each other?//

//So Solomon Mouto said. One of the reasons I wrote our programming specifications in such a manner that I knew the company would send Seto Kaiba personally.//

Jean blinked. //Professor?//

//I'll fill you all in shortly. How is Logan?// 

//I don't know.// Jean moved as Rogue staggered, supporting Logan's other side with a little subtle telekinesis. //It feels like... somebody just bashed him over the head. _Inside_ his head.//

"C'mon, Logan." Rogue nudged the Canadian mutant toward the infirmary. "Let's go see if something finally dented that piece of concrete you call a skull." 

//Scott, go with them,// the professor directed, as Storm took Logan's arm in Jean's place. //Jean, please stay. I may need your assistance.// She felt the Professor's telepathy sweep past her, probing Logan's semiconscious mind. //You sense nothing out of the ordinary from Yugi?// 

Jean felt at the small teen, sensing a mix of emotions complicated as red and black and gold hair. Worry and embarrassment and - glad? _That's strange. He_ likes _Seto._ //He's upset. Really seems worried about Logan. Almost as worried as he was about Tea.// The dark-haired girl had been easy to find. Jean had just reached out, felt a presence that was open and warm and friendly... and more than a little exasperated. Flickers of images had led them straight to the Japanese teenager; a map flipped three-quarters of the way around, a finger picking its way through English abbreviations, a frustrated forehead thwacking against paper. 

//Hmm.//

__

Hmm? Great, Jean thought, rolling her eyes. _Now what?_

//Kurt, if you would?//

"You must have had a long flight." Kurt hopped off the banister, snatched up one of the heavier suitcases. "Come on! I can show you where the guest rooms are." 

"Ah, thanks...." Tea and Yugi glanced at each other, then followed, a happily chattering Mokuba in their wake.

__

Calculation. Suspicion. Plans clattering down like dominos, rerouting in a myriad of directions. 

Suppressing a shiver, Jean looked at Kaiba. 

His smile was thin, and even, and cool as Wolverine's about to turn tree trunks into toothpicks. "Right beside ours. What a coincidence." 

Turning on his heel, the programmer headed for the Danger Room. 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Well, that could have gone better._ Directing his wheelchair into the infirmary, Charles Xavier glanced around the room. Storm, Jean, and Scott; good, they needed to know the full circumstances. But Rogue.... "We need to speak in private, Rogue." 

"Private, heck!" Gloved hands fisted. "Did that little twerp hurt Logan?" 

Putting away various instruments, Storm looked up. "There's nothing physically wrong with him."

"Now." Rogue tossed white-streaked hair. "He _tripped?_ Wolverine doesn't trip!"

"I probed Yugi," Jean put in. "He didn't remember anything past Wolverine scaring him. How could you do that to him, anyway, Logan? He's half _your_ size."

Absently rubbing his head, Logan snorted. "Believe me, Red. I'm not planning on trying it twice." 

"Doesn't remember!" Rogue bristled.

"If it was a purely defensive reaction, he may not." Xavier frowned. "Yugi Mouto is the grandson of an old friend of mine. I invited him here because Solomon has reason to believe there may be something amiss. Which I cannot investigate with you here." 

"Fine!" The infirmary door couldn't slam, but Rogue's blazing temper was loud enough to make up for that lack. 

__

Out of hearing range. Good. Only then did Xavier aim a quiet, questioning look at his most cantankerous X-Man. "Logan?" 

"Feels like Sabretooth went through my head with a chainsaw," Wolverine growled. "Find anything?"

"It's more what I did not find that concerns me." Xavier steepled his fingers before him. "Just after I lost contact with you, our unknown psychic attempted to attack Seto Kaiba." 

"But Kaiba was-" Jean started.

"Here," Xavier nodded. "Yes. Whoever this hostile mutant is, he's not Yugi." He fixed his gaze on Wolverine. "What do you remember?" 

"Tracked the kid, jumped the kid, asked him to talk," Logan ticked off. 

"Asked?" Scott said pointedly. 

Wolverine didn't even dignify that with a snort. "Ozone got real thick, real quick - then his eyes changed. Not purple anymore. Red."

Xavier probed the hazy memory. "He asked you to... play a game?" 

Logan nodded, face sour. "Next thing I know, _he's_ back to normal and _I'm_ facedown in the dirt."

Storm had been studying them both. "You don't seem surprised, Charles."

"It does fit the pattern of events Solomon's described. Not that he's ever seen them personally. Yugi's apparently been quite careful to keep this out of his grandfather's sight." Xavier gestured for his listeners to make themselves comfortable. "You noticed his pendant?" 

"Upside-down pyramid on the steel chain?" Jean put in. "Hard not to." 

"Gold, with a Horus eye," Storm noted. "Quite valuable, if it is real." 

"It's quite real. According to Solomon, it's called the Millennium Puzzle. It was discovered, disassembled, by a team of British archaeologists in the Valley of the Kings; a team who later perished under rather suspicious circumstances. Solomon's never said how he came into its possession, but he was working with various archaeological teams before he settled down to his game store." Xavier frowned. "And ever since Yugi solved the puzzle, some rather odd events have happened around him...."

~*~*~*~*~  
_An artifact of power_, Storm thought, listening to Xavier's account. She knew the tales of Cairo of her youth; the Horus eye marked a creation meant to reflect the pure power of the pharaoh. Thank goodness Evan was visiting her sister's for the next few days; the last thing they needed was her inquisitive nephew prying into Yugi's puzzle. _Power borne by such an innocent child... we must tread cautiously._

"Let me see if I've got this straight," Jean ticked off the highlights. "Mr. Mouto just told you some strange things happen around Yugi. You poked around, and it looks like the bullies at Yugi's high school are running scared, an escaped convict who took over a fast-food place Yugi was in somehow set himself on fire, and three or four people in Domino City who crossed paths with him have just gone flat-out _insane_." She looked at the professor askance. "And you think his grandfather wouldn't know if Yugi did it?" 

"Given that Yugi apparently neglected to mention that he and Kaiba together thwarted a takeover attempt of Kaiba Corp. by Maximillian Pegasus' financial empire, yes." Xavier leaned on the arm of his wheelchair. "The family is often the last to discover when a child develops mutant abilities. As you yourself well know."

__

That was uncalled-for, Charles, Storm thought, frowning. Even if it were true. The Greys were a quiet, well-liked, incredibly normal family; finding out their bright, lovely daughter was a telekinetic would be devastating.

"So why not just activate Cerebro and figure it out?" Scott asked.

Xavier shook his head. "Domino City is not a safe place to probe. I've more than once run into certain... malevolent minds in the vicinity. I wanted to make the attempt under more controlled circumstances. Especially given that Yugi himself appears not to know of his abilities." He tapped his fingers together. "I certainly didn't count on an unknown psychic in the vicinity-" 

__

Boom!

Heads jerked toward the sound; Scott sighed. "Did someone leave Kitty alone in the Chem lab again?" 

__

Boom! Ba-ba-badoom!

"That's not Kitty," Logan growled. 

"No..." Xavier sat up straight. "It's Tabitha!" 

A thunderstorm feeling skittered along Storm's nerves. _Electricity... something's wrong with the mansion's power grid!_

And the lights went down, and the alarms went off, and the Institute exploded in chaos.

~*~*~*~*~  
_Oh, yeah!_

Laughing, Tabitha "Boom-Boom" Smith formed more charges in her hands, blowing them at the basement control panel with a kiss. Glowing orange balls flew and clung, exploding in sparks. Lights flickered, went out. 

__

Fizzler, the young mutant thought, letting the harmless glow light her way as she skipped up the steps toward her unsuspecting classmates. Most of them would have just finished cleaning up from the game, entering to confusing darkness. The backup generators would kick in after just a few minutes, but until then.... _Man, I've wanted to do this forever!_

But the weaker part of her self had always stood in the way. Good Tabitha, _trusting_ Tabitha. The piece of her soul that wanted friends; the part that took to the professor's rules when all the rest of her wanted no rules at all. The mewling coward who still wanted to love and trust her father after everything he'd done.... 

A snarl twisted Boom-Boom's pink lips. _Tough luck, Professor. Good little Tabby's gone._ She'd felt the weakness shattered from her, pushed into shadows with a shriek and a sense of _pulling_-

//Feed me....//

Boom-Boom frowned as the pull resumed, sucking at her rage like a leech. A wave of dizziness went through her, making her stumble on the last step. _Ow_....

But she owed him. Whoever he was. For her freedom.

And she still had enough strength to do what she wanted. 

She moved through shadows and confusion like a wildfire, avoiding stampeding teens and adults, using her Danger Room training to its fullest. Seeking the source of her pain, the softness that had to be defeated if she wanted this glorious freedom to last.

"I didn't think you had earthquakes in New York." A strange girl's voice. It didn't matter.

"Not most of the time, Tea. Not unless Lance-" Kitty cut herself off. "Hey, what's with the lights?"

"I don't know." Kurt. Boom-Boom could see them now. Kurt was against one side of a corridor with a girl she didn't know; brunette, vaguely pretty, with the kind of build that hinted she might dance like Kitty. Nightcrawler's holographic inducer still cast the illusion of a normal human; probably the only reason the nitwit wasn't screeching in terror. Kitty was huddled against the opposite wall by a spike-haired teen even shorter and frailer than she was. Between her and the teen stood a wide-eyed little kid, dark hair pressed near multicolored spikes. 

Kurt saw her, and smiled. Like he was _glad_ to see her. Ha. "Tabitha! What's going on? I was just going to go to the basement and look-" 

"Oh no," Boom-Boom grinned. "You stay right there." There. There was her target. The one who just pretended to be human, the freak who'd actually had the nerve to treat her like a potential girlfriend, like he had half a chance. _And then... them! All of them. Pretending to be my friends, getting me to_ like _them, when all I want to do is... this!_ "Catch!" 

Glowing spheres scattered around her prey; Kitty starting backing up, glaring. "Not funny, Tab!" 

__

That's what you think. Five, four.... 

And violet eyes met hers, and locked.

"No," the spike-haired kid said softly. "Tea, Mokuba - run!" 

Kitty grabbed two hands, and Kurt clutched Tea's arm. "Eee-" 

__

Bamf.

Boom!

"-Eek!" Tea finished, halfway down the corridor. 

__

No fair! Boom-Boom aimed a kick the spiky teen's way, snarling as it passed through the phased kid. _Shadowcat! Can't keep them from me forever...._

"Whoa!" Mokuba tried to pry his hand loose. "What'd you do?" 

"Don't ask, just go!" Kitty yanked them both down the hall, scampering around a shadowed corner.

__

Aw, going to go crying to the teachers? Boom-Boom scattered more charges, running after them as Kurt and Tea _bamf_ed out of sight. _Won't do you much good...._

//Tabitha! What on earth do you think you're doing?//

Aw. The professor. _Having fun. What's it look like?_ But now the ultimate party-pooper knew what she was up to. Damn!

//Stop this at once!// A snatch at her mind, trying to reach, stop, compel- 

-And it rolled over, and past. _All right!_ "Here, Kitty, kitty, kitty...." 

Nightcrawler could teleport. But catch the Kitty-cat, and her little fuzzy-elf would come racing to the rescue. 

And then she'd have him. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Seto Kaiba listened to muffled bangs and suppressed a frown. Flickering lights were only an annoyance; the computers that controlled the Danger Room's holograms were on an uninterruptable power source, and he had every intention of immersing himself in their complex programs for at least another hour. The security here was passable, but inflexible; he'd already begun installing safeguards that would allow the mainframe to handle hackers with some of the dexterity of a duelist, attacking and defending with strategies that would change based on what it faced. This would _not_ be a good place to leave the program.

No matter what Xavier was up to.

__

Mokuba is with Yugi, Seto reminded himself, glancing through the bulletproof glass of his booth into the empty room below, waiting for holograms to fill it with danger and wonder. _Yami could care less if I fell off the face of the earth, but anyone trying to hurt my little brother would have to go through both of them._

Pity the hapless soul that tried. Yugi was innocent, not helpless. And while Yami might not have the cruelty of Ryou's dark half Bakura, the King of Games had a ruthless streak to match Kaiba's most vicious business dealings. 

Still.... 

__

Bamf! 

"-Eeeek!" 

Seto blinked at the rapidly clearing black smoke in the Danger Room. Wagner, and - Tea? _How?_

"It's okay. It's okay!" Kurt rubbed his head as Tea broke out of his grip, looking as tired as if he'd pulled an all-nighter. "The professor locked down the Danger Room while Kaiba's working on it. We'll be safe here." 

__

Safe? From what? Making a quick note on his programming outline, Seto started closing files.

Tea glanced around the echoing walls, stunned. Looked at Kurt, who seemed to be doing his best to vanish in the middle of empty floor.

Took a deep breath, and held out her hand. "Thank you." 

Kurt blinked. Started to smile-

Just as Kitty Pryde, Mokuba, and Yugi ran through the locked doors. Without bothering to open them first. 

Hand poised over the keyboard, Kaiba paused. Pressed his fingers deliberately down, working around the programming blocks Xavier had left. _Hmm. I've never seen Yami do that before._

Only that wasn't Yami; Seto could tell by the frightened look in violet eyes. Though something in the gleam of gold told him the spirit of the puzzle would be surfacing any moment. _So. Wagner isn't the only odd one here._

"Yugi! Mokuba! Are you all right?" Tea reached for her friends, gasped when her hand passed through them. 

"It's okay," Yugi reassured her. "I think." 

"Man! Boom-Boom's lost it!" Letting go of her companions' hands, Kitty shivered, reflexively smoothing her stylish pink blouse. "Professor says just sit tight, they're on their way."

"What? He can't stop her?" Kurt looked even paler than usual.

"I didn't hear you use a phone." Mokuba looked up, evidently relieved to be able to grab onto Tea. "How are you talking to him?" 

"Um...." 

__

Thwam!

Grinning darkly, Tabitha advanced through a smoking hole in the steel door. "Ready or not, here I come...."

That didn't sound good. Or even sane.

Eyes narrowed, Seto slammed a CD home. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Kurt faced the blonde freshman he'd considered a friend, and felt his mind go blank. Pure hate twisted her pretty face, lit by the hellish glow of live charges in her hands. _Tabitha? Why?_

Never mind why. He had to push past the exhaustion from carrying a passenger along on multiple teleports, just as Kitty was shutting away the weariness from phasing two ordinary people. He had to think. He was an X-Man. "Run!" 

Firecracker snaps filled the air as the five dodged. _Oh, sure,_ Kurt thought, pulling Yugi up as the smaller teen tripped from a blast. _Great idea._

Tea raced along, holding Mokuba by the arm, fierce eyes daring Boom-Boom to try and get past her. Kitty was off to one side, panting as she looked for anything left over from previous Danger Room sessions that might be used as a weapon. No luck. 

But they just had to stay clear of Boom-Boom's charges a little longer. Jean and Scott were coming. Rogue was on her way.

__

"Virtual systems ready!" 

"Big brother?" Mokuba perked up, glancing toward the glassed booth. 

Kurt's ears pricked up. Kaiba was in the control room, working feverishly at a console. If the programmer could bring up a holographic scenario, they'd at least have someplace to hide....

__

No, the Professor locked down the systems. Or Kitty would be in there already. Which meant whatever Kaiba was doing, it wouldn't help.

__

"Battle Ox, attack!" 

A minotaur roared into life between them and Tabitha, gleaming axe at the ready. 

Kurt gasped. He knew that beast, if only from a card. _A Duel Monster?_

Snarling, it swung-

__

Boom!

-Squealed, disintegrating in a shower of light.

And they were out of room to run. 

Boom-Boom spun a sphere in her fingers, orange glinting off her rings. "Mmm... who should I hurt first? You, or you, or..." She smirked at Mokuba. "How about you?"

"Stop it!" Tea glared, pushing Mokuba behind her into the corner. "He's just a kid!" 

__

And what are we? Kurt thought, judging angles. If he teleported there... bounced there... he might be able to grab Tabitha and drop them both outside. Carrying a handful of explosives with them. 

Which would just leave whatever Boom-Boom dropped for Kitty to deal with.

//No, Kurt! It's too dangerous!//

Kurt pictured the blasted door, the smoke stains on the Danger Room's impermeable floor. _And what do you call that, Professor?_

Kitty shook her head, silently mouthing _no_. Pointing her finger in various directions, drawing in air the likely result of dropped, explosive spheres. 

Right. She'd never be able to phase them all. _Nuts._

One last stab at reason. "Tab, why are you doing this?"

"Because it's so much _fun!_" Boom-Boom tossed up glowing spheres, caught them, grinned....

Yugi laughed beside him, dark and rich, and Kurt felt his fur prickle. _What's so funny?_

The spike-haired teen stood straight, eyes alight. One hand held his Duel Monsters deck; the other drew a card, holding it face down. "Surrender, Tabitha. You've already lost."

"In your dreams!" 

"I don't know what may have hardened your heart against your friends, Tabitha, but it's blinded you as well. You've been so focussed on tormenting us, you never realized the true danger." Violet eyes slid to the glass window, so far away. "There's your real opponent. And by threatening his brother, you've given him no reason to play fair." 

"Um, not that I don't appreciate the save," Kitty murmured, "But tall, dark and smelly didn't last long." 

"Battle Ox isn't the best monster out there," Kurt put in quietly, trying not to draw Tabitha's attention. 

"So if he's like, this master duelist, why hasn't he pulled something else out of his hat?" 

"It's a duel simulation," Mokuba said, peering out from behind Tea. "Seto just attacked. It's not his turn anymore." 

Kurt fought the urge to close his eyes and groan. Oh, this was crazy. He was going to get blown up because of the rules of a game....

"Don't worry," Tea murmured. "Yam- I mean, Yugi's got it under control." 

Kitty gulped. "You have _got_ to be kidding me...."

Boom-Boom's face contorted with rage, hands shaking as she cupped her power close. "They were never my friends!" 

"If you looked into your own heart, you'd realize the truth. Not that it matters. Kaiba's started a virtual duel, using his deck." Violet eyes held a ruby glint, facing down the growing pile of charges in Boom-Boom's hands without a flinch. "Which means I can use mine to oppose him. Or you." A wry smile tugged up one corner of his mouth. "And believe me, this is one set of card tricks you don't want to see."

Kurt felt his eyes bug. Caught Kitty staring, open-mouthed. _Is this Yugi?_ Granted, he'd barely met the Japanese teen, but he'd thought Yugi was... just another kid. 

This didn't sound like a kid. 

"Oooh. You're gonna get me with the big, bad hologram monsters. I'm sooo scared." Boom-Boom smirked. Threw-

Yugi twisted his card face-up. "I play _Mirror Force!_" 

A shimmer coated the air between them and Tabitha, bouncing back charges with lethal velocity.

~*~*~*~*~  
_Ba-doom!_

Jean didn't even try to open the Danger Room door; just pushed her way through the hole, ducked, and rolled, raising a telekinetic shield. All the while trying to block out images of what Boom-Boom could do with no brakes on; shattered steel, shattered bodies, blood.... 

__

Focus. Rogue and Scott were right behind her, counting on her shield to protect them until they could find some way to stop the madness. 

Steeling herself, she looked.

No blood. Just a smoky, groaning Tabitha on the floor, while five kids huddled behind shimmering air. 

__

They got up a force field? I thought the Professor said the room was down.

Didn't matter. Tabitha was fighting to sit up, fingers trying to cup to form more charges. 

Glove stripped off, Rogue grabbed her hand. 

Jean moved in behind her as Tabitha cursed, scanning both minds for whatever influence had thrown off the Professor's attempt to control Tabitha. Rogue was a glitter of wariness, _prickle - shock - strength._

Tabitha groaned, slumping. _Draining, strength slipping, no! I haven't had my fun...._

Jean shuddered as that dark mind lost its hold on consciousness. Tabitha. But not Tabitha. 

__

Dark. So dark. So angry. So cold....

"Are you okay?" 

Yugi. Violet eyes wide and innocent as he reached for Rogue.

And for a second Jean saw what Rogue saw, what that darkness-that-was-and-wasn't Tabitha saw.

Innocence. Love. Purity.

Light.

__

That light... no! 

"I'm fine!" Rogue gritted out, backing away from Yugi. 

"Somebody get a first aid kit!" Kitty was bent over Tabitha's unconscious form, frantically checking for a pulse.

"I've got it!" Kurt teleported out, brimstone wisping into the air.

__

Kurt, you idiot! Cyclops made a fist.

//Too late for that, Scott,// Jean remarked, drifting across the jittery surface of Tea and Mokuba's minds, shying away from the edged chill that was Seto Kaiba. Metal screeched. The Danger Room door rumbled open, allowing in Beast and Kurt, red-marked kit in hand. //They've already seen too much.//

Tea and Mokuba were kneeling beside Kitty. Tea's shoulders eased as she saw the even rise and fall of Tabitha's chest. "I don't think it's as bad as it looks. Just smoke, mostly...." Jaw dropping, she stared. 

Opening the kit, Dr. Hank McCoy adjusted his glasses. Set to work examining his patient, as if he were simply the gym coach he was dressed as, and not six feet of athletic blue fuzz, claws, and teeth. "Good afternoon, Ms. Gardner." 

Tea froze. Mokuba backed up, gray-blue eyes - so much warmer than his brother's - wide and frightened.

"Oh boy," Kitty murmured. 

__

Oh boy is right, Jean thought, hanging onto Rogue's cloth-covered shoulder as the younger girl grappled with Tabitha's power. Charges wanted to form in Rogue's hands, and there was a wispy _something_ laced through the energy that gave them both the creeps. _Here comes the screaming part-_

"Are you one of the professors here?" Yugi walked into reach, violet eyes innocent and interested. 

Beast paused, taken aback. Nudged up his glasses, as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing. "As it happens, I am." Wiping off soot for a better look at Tabitha, he motioned Scott to assemble a stretcher. "We should take her to the infirmary. The burns seem superficial, but she may have a concussion. I won't be certain until she wakes up." He extended his hand. "Dr. Hank McCoy." 

Yugi took it, claws and all. "Yugi Mouto."

Jean felt her own jaw head for the floor. _You've got to be kidding me._

She scanned him again, just to be sure. Such an innocent soul, who'd come within a heartbeat of being blown sky-high with his friends. He _had_ to be afraid of something he'd never seen before-

But he wasn't. Wary, yes; she could feel the caution waiting in the back of Yugi's mind, like a steel trap under scattered leaves. Yet the image Yugi had of Hank wasn't focussed on fur and claws, but on kind eyes, gentle hands, and calm. _What the_....

"That's Tea, and Mokuba, and-" Yugi glanced back. "Seto." 

Trench coat rustled; Kaiba stalked out of the booth, five cards in his left hand. 

__

Not projecting anymore, Jean thought, curious. Mokuba had been in real danger, after all; and if there was anything she'd picked up from that ironclad mind since he'd arrived, it was that cold, heartless Seto Kaiba would throw himself in front of an avalanche for his little brother. 

But now all she could detect was a flicker of relief, and a grim determination _not_ to react to Hank's appearance.

__

Ice. This guy is pure ice.

"Interesting curriculum." Seto's chill sapphire gaze swept the students, settled on Scott. "I suppose they major in urban renewal." 

//No powers,// Jean reminded Scott. //He's a civilian.//

__

No mind-reading, he shot back.

//I didn't have to read your mind,// she told him wryly, sending the image of his hand near his glasses. //I saw your fingers twitch.//

Beast frowned at a few of Tabitha's burns as Jean helped lift her onto the stretcher. Eyed Kaiba. "I'd been told the holographic system was locked." 

"Hm. So it was." Deliberately, Seto tucked his cards back into his deck. "Tell Xavier this little incident activates the hazard pay clause of my contract."

"Hazard pay-" Scott started, fuming.

"Indeed it does," Hank said soberly. Looked over their guests. "Gentlemen and lady, I'm going to ask that you join the rest of the students in the dining room. We've suffered extensive systems damage, and Professor Xavier would prefer everyone to remain in a secure area while we determine which parts of the mansion are... less than safe." 

"Less than safe?" Tea muttered, white still showing around her eyes.

"The power went out. It throws off all the security systems," Mokuba shrugged. "That happened at home once. It took Seto almost a day to reset everything." 

"Security systems?" Tea looked ill. "I thought this was a _school_."

"It is!" Kitty looked insulted. "It's just... well, it's _special_ here."

"It's a long story." Scott smiled, held out his hand. "Come on. We'll tell you about it, and about what we really do here." 

Jean held telekinetic restraints on the stretcher as Rogue and Beast carried Tabitha out, using her mind's eye to keep track of the kids Scott was escorting toward the dining room. Familiar worry nudged at her. //Kurt?//

__

Jean! Relief reached her, tempered by a feeling that might be best described as _creeped out._ Nightcrawler's gaze flicked toward a quiet Yugi. _Be careful! You didn't see_-

Cascade of images; Yugi standing tall and confident, eyes aglitter with grim mischief, deliberately turning up a trap that might kill.

//Kill?// Yugi? Kurt had to be kidding. That little kid couldn't hurt anyone.

__

Would you just listen to me? He used Mirror Force! Kurt still looked stunned.

//So?//

__

It's a trap card! One of the worst in Duel Monsters. It... reflects an attack back on your opponent. It wipes out everything! When Tabitha threw charges at us-

Oh. _Oh._ Jean swallowed, throat dry. //It was just a hologram, Kurt.// A really effective hologram... no, that was crazy. The Danger Room had force fields as part of its programming; the simulation must have tapped into that. //It's just a game.//

In the hall lights, Yugi's puzzle gleamed.


	2. Chapter 2

~*~*~*~*~  
"I want Mokuba to stay close to you."

"Kaiba," Yugi said, in Japanese as quiet as Seto's as they moved through the crowd of English-speaking teens. Tea was still gallantly trying to hold up a conversation on dancing with Kitty, even as they lined up for dinner with odd dishes and odder kids. Mokuba made a grab for some pizza, jumping back when the kid he collided with suddenly became three. Another teen displayed an ice rose to a feral young girl, who sniffed at it and dunked it into his soda. "You're being rude."

Seto's face didn't change.

__

Right. Seto. Polite. Sometimes those two words don't always go together....

//More like never, aibou.//

//Yami!//

The impression of a shrug filtered through his bond. Along with it came a grudging respect; one who had once been pharaoh could not help but appreciate the iron grasp on power Seto had established with Kaiba Corp. And the measures needed to keep it. 

//Measures that should have been sufficient... for anything but this. Let me speak to him, Yugi.// 

Yugi glanced around the room. No sign of Jean. //Be careful....//

//Always.//

A shimmer of gold, and he was in his soul room. Listening, seeing, but not in control. 

//Be careful, aibou. And try not to kill Seto, please.... //

~*~*~*~*~  
Yami opened his eyes, taking in the crowded dining room. Drinking in sounds, scents, the sharp tang of garlic on his tongue from air filled with pizza sauce. He had free access to Yugi's thoughts, unless his hikari chose to block him, but senses were never as sharp as when he held the body directly. Sometimes it was... dizzying.

__

Concentrate. "You don't think you can protect him." 

Seto started, water sloshing over the edge of his glass before he could put it down. "You enjoy that." 

Yami smiled. Few could tell the difference between himself and Yugi holding control. Yet for all his professed disbelief in magic, Kaiba knew in an instant. "Well?" 

"No." Blue eyes were dark, twilight slipping toward night. "They've seen me play my card. The next attack won't be in a room with a holographic projector." 

"And you're so certain there will be a next attack?" Yami arched a brow. "Solomon believes Xavier is a good man." 

"I don't care what Solomon Mouto believes." Seto's eyes narrowed. "We've been manipulated. We're surrounded by teenagers with hazardous abilities. Something set that girl off. And three of Xavier's so-called _teachers_ aren't here." 

Yami nodded. Kaiba might see potential enemies where there were true friends, but Yami could not ignore the CEO's ability to calculate the odds. "Take Mokuba, then. Tea as well, if she'll go." He suppressed a smile at the thought; Kaiba would likely have to haul the plucky brunette out draped over his shoulder, fists pounding his trench coat all the way. "There's no reason for all of us to remain in danger."

Seto shot him a look that could have cut glass. "I have a contract." 

__

And more than enough lawyers to break it, if you truly wished, Yami thought. _But you won't leave Yugi in danger, will you? Not while you can disguise it as a selfish act. Ah, Kaiba... you'll never master the heart of the cards by denying your own heart._

//Don't, Yami. Please? He's been hurt so much already....//

Reluctantly, Yami held back the words that might have stripped Kaiba's soul bare. //As you wish, aibou. But this deception aids no one.//

//Yes, it does,// Yugi insisted. //Can't you see? Every time we show him he can trust us, we get a little closer. But if you push him, we might lose him for good.//

And that would break Yugi's heart. "I assume you also have a plan," Yami observed. 

"Hmm." Kaiba's head inclined, just a trace of a nod. One finger tapped his metal briefcase; a case Yami knew might contain anything from duel-disks to a laptop stuffed with the latest hacking programs. "It will take some time." 

Yami looked up at the taller teen, gauging his condition with a trained eye. Taking in the slight darkness under blue eyes, the not-quite-rigid set of shoulders. _You know Kaiba. He's likely been programming since he arrived._ "After dinner." 

Seto's eyes narrowed. 

"Don't be a fool, Kaiba. You can't invade their systems on an empty stomach. After we eat, Tea and Yugi can help distract our hosts. And the later the hour, the more likely you'll be able to infiltrate without rousing attention." With a glance to Tea's side table, Yami played his trump. "Mokuba's waiting for you."

"Hmph." But Seto's fingers drifted toward his locket, just brushing the back of the card. _Mokuba_....

Yami kept his expression still. _Well, well._

//Yami, is that-?//

//Kaiba. Reaching out to his heart,// the ancient spirit acknowledged. //You're wiser than I knew, aibou.//

But the moment passed, chill slamming up around Kaiba's mind solid and final as a glacier. 

//Ow!// 

Yami held back his flinch, feeling that chill slice across the thin thread that linked them to Kaiba. //Aibou, he's hurt you-// 

//It's... okay.// A wince echoed down their bond. //I'm okay.//

//You are not!// Shadows were a breath away; all Yami had to do was reach out-

//Yami, no! He doesn't know what he's doing.//

Yami bit back a snarl. //He _should_.// Damn Kaiba; how clearly must he paint the truth for the man? Sometimes he wished he had crushed Seto's mind in their first duel, as he'd crushed so many others who'd wished Yugi harm.

But... Yugi hadn't wanted that. 

__

Cold. Vicious. A thirst for power that could never be quenched.

That was Kaiba, as the CEO had been that dark day he'd dueled Solomon; the day he'd shown Yugi what true hurt was.

__

Orphan. Big brother. So desperately alone....

That, too, had been Kaiba. 

And it had saved him. 

__

I don't want to hurt him, I just want to stop him. I just want him to see. _I just want...._

To show him the Heart of the Cards.

So Yugi had wished. And Yami had honored that wish, using his shadow powers to crush that pernicious evil out of Seto's spirit. Leaving Kaiba to find his own path, if he could. If he dared.

//I won't give up on Seto, Yami. I _won't_. Not now, not ever.//

//Nor will I, aibou,// Yami told his hikari softly, heading for Tea's table. //I swear to you.// _No matter how much I want to drop him off a pyramid._

Yugi laughed. 

~*~*~*~*~  
"...So that's the contemporary piece requirement for Julliard? Whoa." Tea laughed, feeling a flutter of nervousness. "This might be tougher than I thought." 

Kitty grinned, jabbed an elbow her way. "But you still want it, huh?" 

"I've always wanted to dance." It'd been her dream for as long as she could remember; the desire to reshape air with fluid motion, to paint feeling in flesh and bone. A dream to bask in the blaze of lights as she performed, to see faces charged with joy and awe and wonder. Duel Monsters was fun... and sometimes scary, and all-too-often downright weird since the Millennium Items had appeared. But dance was everything.

"Is this seat taken, brave lady?" 

Tea rolled her eyes, looked up. "Of course not, Yu-"

Saw the hint of ruby in violet eyes, the curl of lips that managed to combine arrogant confidence and wary curiosity all in one.

__

Yami. 

Tea felt her throat go dry. "Of course not." _Oh boy. Oh, brother._

What a view....

Mentally, she thwacked herself in the head. That was Yugi's body she was looking at, as Yami claimed his chair; Yugi's black sleeveless shirt, and blue jacket, and chains... Yugi had definitely picked up more chains since Yami had made himself known to them-

__

Not helping, brain.

Short version, this was her best friend. Who was sweet, and innocent, and not any older than she was, no matter how gracefully Yami slid into polished wood. She was _not_ going to do anything to wreck that.

__

But Yami doesn't do things without asking.... 

A nudge beside her. "Hey, breathe, girlfriend," Kitty murmured. 

"I'm fine." 

"Uh-huh. Sure. Like Jean is when Scott's playing footsie, and they think we don't know," Kitty murmured back. Grinned at Yami, and peeked under the table. "Ooh. Nice boots." 

"Thank you." Yami eyed his slice of pizza suspiciously. Tapped the point with a finger, as if testing cheese and crust for sharpness. 

__

Oh boy. Tea couldn't decide whether to burst out laughing or crawl under the table. _Guess ancient Egypt didn't have pizza... Yugi, do something before we have to explain!_

"So, what's with you and Kaiba, anyway?" Kitty munched into her slice, dark brows arched in curiosity. Glanced across the room, where Mokuba was chattering away with Kurt, Seto a silent presence beside them. "I mean, there's some weird vibes off you two, you know? One minute you look like you want to kill each other, next you're two against the world. And don't tell me it's a guy thing." 

"It's definitely... not a guy thing." At Tea's subtle nod, Yami followed Kitty's example, though with a shade more grace. "We're duelists. We've fought beside each other, and against each other."

"A _lot_ of against each other," Tea put in, daring to relax her death-grip on her cup. Maybe they could pull this off after all. "Yugi usually wins."

"But not always. He's good." Yami smiled; the one that quivered Tea to her toes, and sent enemy duelists scampering for cover. "When Kaiba puts his heart into it, there are few foes he cannot defeat." 

"Yeah. If you can live with his tactics." Tea scowled into her soda, remembering a castle rooftop, a fateful choice that had shaken Yugi to the core... and made them all realize that Yami was, always and forever, not Yugi.

Cold blue eyes. A trench coat flapping in the wind. Kaiba, standing behind his rotting Blue Eyes, back to the edge of the abyss. _I don't have a card that can defeat you, but I do have a strategy...._

"He was fighting for Mokuba's life and soul, Tea," Yami said softly. "I would have done the same." 

__

I know, Tea thought, remembering a convict's gun to her head, and a blindfold, and a confident voice that had left a lighter where it was certain to fall. _That's what scares me._

"Soul?" Kitty's brown eyes were wide.

"Ah... well-" Tea stalled. 

"Did you really mean that?" Kitty got in. As if she were half-afraid to say the words. "Something went after Mokuba's soul?" 

Yami frowned. "Why do you ask, Kitty?" 

"Because..." the slight brunette swallowed. "Look. I _know_ this is going to sound crazy. But a while back, something came after Ororo...."

~*~*~*~*~  
"Tabitha!" Striding through the wasteland of Boom-Boom's mind, Xavier searched for answers. Dimly he was aware of his body in its wheelchair, the fine line of sweat across his brow from hours of sifting through whirling thoughts. "Tabitha, where are you?" 

Malicious laughter rang through the wind. "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe... kill the prof, and who will know?" 

Xavier leapt aside as bolts of lava rained down. Glimpsed the mutant's face in smoky clouds, empty of all but hate. "Tabitha, we're your friends! We're trying to help you!" 

"Help me get it back? I don't think so!" Fire leapt up around him, a deadly circle of gold and darkness. 

__

The flames are not real, Xavier told himself._ Not real!_ "Get what back?" 

"I'm not telling...." 

He ducked through the flames, seizing cloud in mental hands before it could flee. Grasping whatever might remain of the girl's conscience. "You will tell me!" 

"Won't work!" Cloud giggled, a translucent image of the blonde's tufted hair. "Won't work won't work won't work...." 

Nothing. No conscience. No morals. 

__

No soul....

Xavier shook off the superstitious notion, grimacing as fire closed in. He was running out of strength. And time. 

He gripped cloud, forcing it solid, seizing Tabitha's mind directly. Hating himself as he did so; to hold her this way was to risk injury, danger, death.... _"Tell me!"_

"The light!" Cloudy hands batted at him; unable to free herself, unable to stop struggling even as the effort tore her apart. "Don't bring back the light!" 

__

Pain, struggle, shredding-

Gasping, Xavier reclaimed his body. 

"Professor!" Jean's slim hands on his. Jean's mind wrapping around his own, defending him from the lava of hate. 

"I'm all right, Jean." Xavier forced down a cough, steadied his voice. Met the six gazes scattered about the infirmary around Tabitha's sedated form; his three head teachers, his two best students, and a wide-eyed Rogue. "I just - need a moment." 

Logan snorted. 

Storm had her hand over Tabitha's still fingers, pensive. "Take what time you need, Charles. Something tells me this problem will require all our efforts."

"It's the psychic, isn't it?" Jean shuddered. "You found that - that _hole_ inside her?"

"Hole?" Beast inquired, furry brow raised. "The blood test showed traces of an unknown biological compound, but I found no evidence of injury."

"Nor would you. It's a mental injury, not a physical wound." Xavier drew a breath, considering how best to phrase this. "It's as if every moral impulse, all that we would think of as Tabitha's conscience, has been crushed out of her." 

Scott whistled. "You can do that?" 

"I couldn't, no," the professor admitted. At times, he sympathized with his young students. This was not a comfortable aspect of his powers to speak of. "I can control a mind, yes; as I tried to control Tabitha, by strengthening her ethics, her sense of right and wrong. But... there was nothing left to add my strength to."

"She was just having fun." Rogue's voice was small, barely audible from where she'd huddled on herself in an infirmary chair. "She was wrecking everything... she was going to try an' kill Kurt... and she was just having _fun_." Her voice broke.

"There's an impulse in all of us to harm others, Rogue," Xavier acknowledged gently. "It's part of being human. We only fail if we yield to it. Jean, Rogue, please keep an eye on Tabitha." He activated his wheelchair. "The rest of you... I believe I can assemble a picture of our opponent." 

The vault of Cerebro slid open. Xavier rolled up to the computer, activating the FACES program with a few keystrokes. _Nose, eyes, ears...._

"Nobody I saw," Logan grumbled, crossing his arms as a twenty-something face with a cold sneer coalesced on the screen.

"Yet I have." Storm gazed at the monitor. "Charles, this man was on the grounds!" 

Hank growled softly. "And you didn't notice?"

"He... seemed to be one of the students." Ororo's blue eyes widened. "Charles, have I-"

Xavier swept a swift probe through her mind, feeling none of that horrid absence. "No, Storm. He may have deceived you, that's all." 

"Did he touch you?" Hank pounced. "The compound in Tabitha's blood must have been introduced somehow."

"No. No, he didn't," the weather-witch recalled, relieved. "But he did touch Kaiba." 

Xavier probed for the memory, seeing through Storm's eyes. _Contact - speech - surprise-_ "Yet Seto resisted him."

"How?"

"An excellent question, Storm." Xavier reached out, searching for that steel trap of a mind. Carefully; he had no idea who or what had assaulted Kaiba in the past, but the young man had considerable mental defenses. _It could just be old habits, from emotional abuse. He certainly shows signs of that. Yet, given what we know of his history with Yugi...._ "Well." 

"Charles?" Logan scowled. 

"It seems our hired programmer suspects our motives." 

"I could've told you that," Scott said darkly. "And now Kaiba's got some of our security codes. What's he up to?" 

"What I should have anticipated." Xavier regarded Cerebro's screen, debating what action to take next. "Going on the offensive."

~*~*~*~*~  
_That should do._ Laptop stored away, Seto headed up to his guestroom. It would take some time for his virus to work its way through Xavier's secure files, searching for any mention of keywords like _Kaiba, Seto, Mokuba, Yugi, Tea, Yami_, or _Millennium Item_. But in an hour or so, he should have a better idea of what the man's true plans were....

A sound from his room. Mokuba. Giggling. 

Curious, Seto opened the door- 

And caught a face-full of pillow. 

"Oops."

Yugi. Definitely Yugi.

The culprit stood with another small pillow in hand, just having ducked under Mokuba's swipe. Tea had buried Kurt off to the side, a two-fisted wielder of pillow and plush unicorn. Kitty was on the assault with a throw-pillow and afghan, looking like an improbable fuzzy _retiarius_ of ancient Rome.

And all of them froze. 

"Big brother...." Gray-blue eyes ducked aside from his, fixed on the fingers clenched on that ill-aimed pillow.

__

Do I look that heartless? "It's all right," Seto said coolly, forcing his fingers to loosen. Wishing he could force flesh and bone to ease, that he could walk over and brush back long black hair and tell his brother everything would be fine. _If we were alone... but I can't._ "Don't let me stop you."

Stripping off his trench coat, Seto hung it on the back of the closet door. Reflexively checked that his deck was safe in a hip pocket; no sense in taking chances. Now, to find a quiet corner and wait for his program to do its work....

__

Thump.

You wouldn't dare, Mouto. Slowly, Seto turned.

But Yugi still held his pillow.

Mokuba, though.... 

Tea was biting her lip. Kitty was frozen, afghan half-furled over her shoulder, watching them all. And Kurt was nothing but wide eyes under a pile of cushions.

__

I can't. If we were alone....

Yet he couldn't look away from the gentle question in Yugi's violet gaze. The shy hope in Mokuba's eyes; hurt, wary, but never giving up. 

One chestnut brow lifted. Regarded Yugi's pillow in his grasp. 

And set the laptop down.

"I believe that was a challenge."

~*~*~*~*~  
"What _is_ that noise?" Janus sneered quietly, as he and his touched made their way up the mansion's outer wall, concealed under a cloak of distraction. No sense in drawing attention. Yet. 

"Kids." Claws impaling the window ledge, his tracker's teeth gleamed in the night. Lank blond hair fell past Sabretooth's shoulders, swinging into feral eyes. "Tasty."

"Not yet. Not until I'm done with them." Janus' lip turned up. This one was so easy to control. His evil had surged up with barely a touch, crushing the feeble impulse toward good in an instant.

"That's Kaiba's room." Bobby Drake's gaze was blank, chill as the ramp of ice he'd summoned to walk up the wall. 

Janus eyed him carefully; relaxed, confident that his hold was unbroken. Now this one... this one had fought. For all the good it had done.

"Six inside." Half-wolf in form, Rahne Sinclair tilted her furred head, listening to footsteps. "He's coming near us." She sniffed. "Kitty and Kurt are in there."

Janus smiled. So they'd have to go through a pair of mutants to grab his target.

All the better.

~*~*~*~*~  
//Darn! I thought we'd be able to keep him away from the computer longer.//

//We did well to distract him this long, aibou.// Lounging in the shadows of his soul room, Yami watched Kaiba withdraw from the game. Saw the flash of hurt and resignation, before Mokuba dropped into a pillow-strewn heap on the guest bed. //You could never expect him to ignore his own duty.//

//I know. I was just hoping...// Yugi put a gentle hand on Mokuba's shoulder, shifted it into a cheerful hug when the boy turned his way. //What did you think of Kitty's story?//

//A shaman, trying to steal Ororo's soul to have his revenge on the wind-rider?// Unseen, the pharaoh's spirit nodded. //I've seen such before. Ororo has a brave nephew. And a lucky one; shattering a Dark talisman such as that jewel should have unleashed a fatal backlash.// Yami reached outward, brushing his powers over the light-and-shadow presence that was Kitty Pryde. //I believe I know why it did not.//

Yugi's eyes widened. //She's-//

//Like you, aibou. Yes. Like Kaiba, if the man ever dared admit it. The shadows are hers, if she would but call them.// Stalking the maze of his soul room, Yami smiled ruefully. //It's no wonder she still feels guilty.//

//But she didn't know! How could she have stopped him?//

//It's the heart that knows, Yugi. And the heart that hurts-// A flicker of shadow caught Yami's eye; something dark, moving on the edge of Yugi's vision. //Aibou? What is that?// 

Ice shattered the window inward. Claws struck through, seized Kaiba even as he tried to twist aside. A huge, leather-and-fur clad man forced his way through the shattered window frame, snaggle-teeth growling in Seto's face before a claw-tipped backhand slammed Kaiba unconscious.

Kitty gasped. "Sabretooth!" 

__

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Light, and shadows, and the Puzzle's magic in his hands-

And an arm like a tree trunk, sweeping him across the room. 

Yami rolled with the blow, feeling claws scrape skin. Sensing the darkness, the hate, the lust to kill- _"Mind Crush!"_

Shadow magic swept out from his hand, striking for the heart. Sabretooth choked. Stumbled.

Shook his head, and kept breathing.

__

Gods! He isn't human! 

Kurt was a puff of dark smoke and a rolling ball of blue-and-chestnut fur on the floor, trying to throw off a werewolf girl whose teeth snapped at his throat. Mokuba threw a radio at a purple-haired stranger, startling him just long enough for the boy and Tea to duck his grasping hands. Kitty squirmed free of a block of ice, phasing through the frost-wielding young man's blasts of cold. "Scott! Logan!" she yelped. "Anybody! _Help!_"

Strategy formed in a breath, a rush of shadow magic to Yami's hands. _Take out the werewolf, and Kurt can get the noncombatants out of here-_

Ice shackled Yami's wrists, chill spreading down to anchor him to the floor. 

"Well, well. My touched didn't tell me about _you_." Purple spikes of hair and a gloating smile, blackness oozing from the stranger's palm onto Yami's collarbone. "I wonder what you'll do in my collection?" 

Stunned, Yami felt barriers falling in his mind, shattering despite every magic he summoned to hold them. A roar of demons, a hiss of mist and darkness-

__

The Shadow Realm! 

And claws of thought reaching out from it, tearing at him to unearth the light half of his soul.

//YAMI!//

//Yugi!// Yami tried to grip his hikari fast, clutching light to him, fighting back the shadows. //Aibou, tenshi, hold fast to me!//

//Yami....//

Darkness roared. 

Silence in the puzzle. Silence in his heart....

__

"No!" Fury swept him; fury he'd almost forgotten in the heart of Yugi's innocence. The rage of a pharaoh denied; the black anger of one who held the power of the Shadow Games. "This shall not _be!_"

Glass and ice shattered.

~*~*~*~*~  
_Professor!_ Kitty shrieked mentally, covering her face against that blast of shadowed fury. Wishing she could cover her mind against that horrid memory of Yugi _blurring_, like two stereo images going out of focus; one innocent, one grim and determined as Logan in the middle of carving up the landscape. Translucent hands gripping each other, before clawed shadows tore the lighter one away.

Phasing wasn't helping; she still couldn't breathe. Couldn't drag in air past the heat, the rage, the untainted desire to crush mind and life from a grinning, purple-haired mutant-

__

Smack!

And fury - fell apart, tri-colored spikes knocked aside by Sabretooth's blow. 

__

That was Yugi, Kitty realized, using the Professor's techniques to shrug off the aftermath of projected rage. _Oh my god..._ that _was_ Yugi?

Growling, the feral mutant moved in for the kill-

"No." Darkness backed that word, echoing through her skull.

Sabretooth snarled. "Janus-"

"Leave him. I want Kaiba." Janus turned his smirk on the two normal kids scrabbling for the door. "Both of them." 

//Kitty, what-//

__

Talk later! Run now! Kitty hurtled over ice, planting a solid boot in Janus' chest before she phased through him. She didn't know why this guy wanted Mokuba, but she wasn't going to leave even a cold fish like Seto Kaiba at his mercy. _Ick... sticky._ _Professor, get Logan-_

A smear of black clung to her skin as she tumbled to the floor, sucking at her, trying to soak in. It hurt, it _hurt_....

Hands grasped hers, ignoring the fact that she was intangible. "Deny it." One cheekbone bruised, Yugi's darker half stared into her eyes, gaze pure, glowing ruby. 

__

But... I.... The smear was darkness, it was the worst of her, it was crushing all it meant to be an X-Man. She couldn't fight it.... 

"You can. You will! You are of Shadow, not of Darkness! It shall not have you." The fury was back; but wrapped around her, supporting her, offered freely as a bloody sword in the midst of the battlefield. "Deny it!" 

//Kitty! I can sense what he's doing. Whatever he's offering, refuse it! He's tampering with the very fabric of your mind. This is the darkness in Yugi, you can't trust it!//

Opposing forces were tearing at her self; shadow's grip, Xavier's familiar pull, Janus' choking darkness. And the dark was winning. 

Ruby; and now a gleam of gold, a Horus eye in the shadows. "You have the strength, Kitty! Take it!"

//Shadowcat, listen to me! You can't allow him to-//

"Get. OUT!" 

Darkness shattered off Shadowcat, left her shaking and tangible on the floor. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe. 

But she was herself. 

"Seto!" Mokuba's wail; Kitty lifted an aching head in time to see Sabretooth sling Kaiba's limp form over his shoulder. Mokuba was shivering, frost coating his shirt; Tea was trying to break out of socks iced to the floor. "Stop! Leave my big brother alone!" 

"Don't worry, little one. You're coming too. Though not... intact...." Smirking, Janus reached for the boy.

Tea grabbed for him, falling short with an ominous _crack_ of ice-sheathed ankle. "Yami, help!" 

Eyes narrowed, Yugi's darkness swept up a hand-

Howling, chestnut fur launched itself between Janus and the shadow.

__

Rahne! "No!" Kitty struggled to move. As if she could stop him. As if darkness would listen to mercy-

Rage folded on itself, pulled the blow; slammed the she-wolf into the wall, not through it. Yami swore, staggered. 

__

Bamf! "Got you!" Grinning, Kurt wrapped his arms around Mokuba, stuck his tongue out at a fuming Janus-

Gasped, and froze, as Janus snatched his wrist. 

The bedroom door slammed open. Cyclops' crimson blasts started redecorating the room, shot off a piece of Sabretooth's furs as the snarling mutant hauled his tall victim out the window, shattered ice as Bobby covered Janus' escape. White chunks hurtled through the air as Jean reached out with hand and mind, blocking the window before Bobby could slip out himself. Logan snarled in behind them, whipping past to slice Tea free of her icy bonds.

But Kitty only had eyes for the blurring around Kurt. Not the one-into-two that had hit Yugi; this was a fracturing, a shattering of the wholeness that was her friend into dark and light-

And the light was swept away.

Cyclops fired again, dodging as Bobby turned ice blasts on him. "Kurt, _go!_" 

__

Bamf!

"No," Kitty whispered. Blinking away exhaustion as the fight blurred. _Professor! You've got to find Kurt! You've got to stop him!_

//He's perfectly safe-//

"He's not, Xavier. As you would know, did you bother to listen to one with eyes to see." Yami's hand was warm on hers, lifting her to unsteady feet. "Take me to him." 

Kitty blinked. "Tired...."

"I know." Violet eyes were grave, only a hint of ruby in their heart. "But the light in your friend has been sent to the Shadow Realm, and Mokuba is in grave danger."

"Teleports," Kitty mumbled, leaning on the shorter teen as they ducked a stray table lamp sailing out of the ongoing riot. Rahne had come around, and she and Logan were mixed up in what sounded like the world's largest dogfight. Dimly Kitty could feel the Professor's urge to shake off this all-too-attractive darkness. "Could be anywhere...."

Violet narrowed. "Then we require your assistance, Professor."

//I don't know _what_ you are, Yami, but if you think I'll allow you to tamper any further with my students' minds- Good Lord!//

And for an instant, Kitty was seeing through Beast's eyes in the kitchen; seeing Kurt, and a shaking Mokuba....

And the silvery, deadly gleam of a knife.

~*~*~*~*~  
"Put it down, son." 

Panting, Kurt held his weapon to tender skin, debating what to do next. He'd felt the tearing, felt the freedom, felt Janus' loathing of the small, struggling being in his arms. Kill, don't kill, maybe just maim...."I don't _think_ so."

"I know you don't want to do this, Kurt." Beast stood still, dishtowel forgotten in one hand, ready to move. Dark eyes gauged angle and distance, trying to calculate a solution that would end in anything but blood. "Put the knife down." 

//Do as he says, Kurt! Stop this!// A sober chill crept into the Professor's thoughts. //Or I'll be forced to stop you. Any way I can.//

Kurt laughed. "You couldn't stop Boom-Boom." 

//But I will stop you, Kurt. If I must shatter your mind to do it- No!//

Too late. Kurt felt the Professor surge forward, clamping on his arm, tearing at him with telepathic command.

But the blade was already dimpling skin, all he had to do was push-

Another voice swept through the Professor's thoughts, riding them like a wave. Familiar, yet not; the same dark confidence he'd stood behind when Tabitha had tried to kill them all. _"I challenge you...."_

Shadows froze the world. 

__

Why won't my arm move? Kurt's gaze swept a room gone gray, a teacher halted on the edge of a lunge, tears frozen mid-fall from his captive's face. No breath, no sound... nothing but footsteps, echoing closer. _Why can't I move?_

"Time is different here." Tired footsteps made their way toward him; Kitty, brown eyes wide at the difference in the world, and....

Kurt blinked. _Shadow. Like me. But not._ "You're... _not_ Yugi." 

"No." Ruby gleamed in the violet gaze. "You can't kill Mokuba, Kurt." A hint of smile tugged at his lips. "Not until you play a game with me." 

"This isn't a game, Yami!" Kitty burst out. 

"Oh, but it is. This is the Shadow Realm, Kitty. And no one leaves it who hasn't won." Yami shuffled his deck, handed a card to Shadowcat.

__

Monster Recovery? Kurt frowned, still straining against whatever was holding him in place. Nothing. As if his arms couldn't even get the order to move. _Is he kidding?_

"Don't lose this." Yami's gaze was grim. "Find Kurt. Find the others if you can, but find Kurt. And come back to me." 

"But Kurt's...." Kitty stopped. Listened. 

__

Kitty... A wisp of his own voice in the wind. _Someone, anyone, help me...._

Kurt paled. No. No, she _couldn't_. She couldn't bring it back! "No!" 

He could move. If he dropped Mokuba, he could move. He could reach her. And he still had the knife-

Yami's hands closed on his arm, twisted him aside. "I'd think you would want to hear the rules first."

"Rules? Who cares about rules?" Kurt tried to teleport, to knife that betraying Shadow-kitten through the heart as she ran through the shadows. Nothing.

Yami smirked. "I do." 

Kurt growled, tried to stab. _Missed!_ "You're crazy!" 

"You're far from the first to think so." Ruby was overtaking violet. "It's simple. We'll each draw from my deck. I'll draw once. You can draw twice, if you choose... but you must draw blind. High card wins." 

"Two cards?" Kurt snorted. "And you get one?" Why would anyone put themselves at that much of a disadvantage? 

"Oh, I'll have two. But my second card will only activate if I win." Multicolored hair tilted. "Shall we play?"

Kurt wet his lips. _It doesn't matter. You've still got the knife. And he's tired; feel his hands shake, holding you back? All you have to do is stall long enough, and you've got him._ "Why not?"

~*~*~*~*~  
_Run. Just run. _

Ignore the shadows that were and weren't the mansion. Shut out the thought of Yami facing down Kurt's darker side with nothing but cards and a mocking smile. Follow that whisper in the wind, that weird, waking sense that said _Kurt is here_.... 

__

"Kitty, help me!" 

Shimmering mother-of-pearl in the darkness. A glint of rainbow winking through a misty grove of blasted trees. A translucent light ducking shadows with claws and fangs, bleeding brightness into the dark. "Kurt!" 

Shadowcat leapt at the nearest set of ruby eyes, driving shadow down with a kick and a crackle like frost-brittle leaves. "Kurt, come on! We don't have much time!" 

Light squirmed out of the pile of creatures, wrapped itself around her in familiar warm curves of arm and tail. _"You're here. How?"_

"Explain later." Kitty dodged a swipe of clawed darkness, took off before that rustling in the air could zero in on them. _Not that that'll fool them long. Not with Kurt glowing like a Cape Cod lighthouse._ "Did you see anybody else?" 

__

"I didn't see _anybody!"_ Two fingers closed on her shoulder, weightless and solid at once. _"There was just - Janus touched me, and-"_

"Gotcha. Okay, we do this the hard way...." If she could just figure out what the hard way was. _How do I find loose bits of people's souls?_

"Kitty." Glowing eyes sought hers. _"Something terrible is happening, isn't it? I can feel it. Janus is using me to do something horrible."_

"Part of you, yeah." Peering through the gloom, Kitty strained for a glimpse of light. "Don't sweat it, fuzzy. Yami's got it covered." _I hope._

__

"Yami?" 

"Long story." _And he's going to tell me if I have to phase his toothbrush through his head._ "God. This is hopeless. The shadows are so thick... I can't see anybody!"

The tail tightened around her waist. _"You saw me."_

"Not 'til I was almost on top of you - oh, _duh_." Kitty resisted the urge to smack herself in the head. It was hurting enough already. "Keep an eye out, okay?" _Deep breath. Believe. You've got to believe, or this won't work._

Closing her eyes, she listened. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Furred fingers snatched a card from Yami's deck. Grinned. "Silver Fang!"

Howling, the magical wolf appeared. Kurt gasped.

Yami smirked at the teenager's start. "Surprised? This is a Shadow Game. Everything we do here is real." Inwardly, he was anything but amused. Silver Fang wasn't the strongest of his monsters, and if Kurt were as avid for the Duel as others claimed, he'd know that. _Heart of the Cards, guide me!_

Eyes closed, he drew.

__

Yes.

Nodding slightly, Yami regarded his opponent. "It's your move."

Kurt tore his eyes from silver fur, eyed the card still face-down. "You're not even going to look?" 

"No." Yami crossed his arms. Smiled. "Choose. Draw... or face me as you are." 

__

Hurry, Kitty. I can't stall the Game much longer.

~*~*~*~*~  
_"Help me... please... dinna leave me here alone, in the dark...."_

Rahne.

__

Up, down. Up, down. Don't think there's anywhere level in this place.... Panting, Kitty leaned against a standing stone to catch her breath. 

Kurt stared, eyeing the ring of bluestones suddenly in their path. _"Where did that come from?" _

"Got me. Looks like... postcards of Ireland... done by Da Vinci on downers...." 

Intangible fingers brushed her forehead. _"You have a fever!"_

No duh. "It's... this place. I don't think... it likes me much." How did Yami stand it? 

__

He's a Shadow. He's part of here. Sort of. 

You could be, too....

"Kitty!" Light and warmth, pouring through the hand on her face. _"You have to stay awake!"_

Right. Stay awake. Find Rahne. Find the others.... 

__

"Rahne!" Kurt, keeping one hand on her shoulder, as if he were afraid she was the one who might fade away. _"Rahne, over here!"_

"K-kurt? Is't you?" Grass rustled underfoot; a glowing, bleeding werewolf lurched out of the protective ring. _"Lad, I'm so tired. And I keep seeing these... horrible things...."_

"I know. I know! But we're going back. We'll stop it." Kurt clasped Rahne's paw-like hand, drew her over to Shadowcat. _"How do we get out of here?"_

Kitty shook her head. "Have to find the others...." 

Paired fingers shook her. _"We can't find them if we lose you, too!"_

Point. But- "I don't know. Yami brought me here." Almost unconsciously, she drew out the Duel Monsters card. "Kurt. What's this do?" 

__

"Monster Recovery?" Kurt peered at colored cardboard, eyes wide at the purple glow that surrounded it. _"You don't see that one much. It brings all of your monsters back to your hand...."_ His jaw dropped. _"Rahne! Grab onto Kitty!"_

The shape-shifting mutant backed up. _"Have y' all lost yer minds? 'Tis a card game!"_

"Not to Yami, it's not!" Spending the last of her strength, Kitty lunged-

Just before shadows took them, she felt fur. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Kurt's dark half studied his card. Bit his lip. 

Decided, and drew. 

Silver Fang vanished in a mournful wail, replaced by a gleam of armor, a whinny of a mighty steed. "Gaia, the Fierce Knight!" 

"Well played." Yami acknowledged. "But not enough." He turned his card over, revealing a figure with robes of night and a smirk to equal his own. "I summon the Dark Magician! Dark Magic attack!" 

The dark mage threw out a violet blast, shattering Gaia and knocking Kurt from his feet. "But... you didn't even look...."

"A good duelist knows his deck." _Let this have been enough time. The Game is over. I can't hold us here much longer._ Yami knocked the fallen knife away, took Kurt's shaking hand. "Activate Monster Recovery!" 

And shadows cleared, and the world snapped back into motion. 

"Kurt, don't-" Reflexes moved faster than thought, and Beast stuck his arms out just in time to catch an unconscious Kitty. "What in the _world?_" 

Mokuba had one hand to his throat, staring at his former captor... who'd somehow reappeared five feet away, writhing in Yami's grasp. 

"She did it." Yami let out a relieved breath, eyeing the translucent lights clinging to Shadowcat's hands. Reached out to the nearer, set his will, and _pulled_. "By the power of the Millennium Puzzle, I bid you - return!"

Light flared in Kurt's eyes. He shivered. 

And collapsed onto Yami's shoulder, sobbing as if his heart had broken.

~*~*~*~*~  
_Ow...._

A scent of dust, exhaust fumes, chill concrete. The same chill pervading his cheek where it rested against a wall, sore chin propped on an aching shoulder. 

Seto winced, not quite ready to open his eyes. _Did I fall asleep at the keyboard again? Mokuba usually takes me home-_

Clink.

Wait. That was steel. 

The same steel waking nerves told him was clamped around his wrists. 

Kaiba clamped panic down, forced it to yield to cool calculation. _Wait. Listen. Think._ They'd been... at Xavier's institute. He'd just been about to check the search program, some grizzly of a man had burst in the window-

//Ow....// Something shifted in the back of Kaiba's mind, like an unexpected lump under the covers of his bed. Something that felt warm and bright and comfortable as an extra blanket thrown on for a winter night. //Yami?//

__

What on earth? That couldn't be what it sounded like. It simply couldn't. 

//KAIBA?//

The CEO swallowed. _I'm in hell_....

//Kaiba, it's all right! I'm not going to hurt you.//

Of course not. Wasn't that what delusions always said? 

//Kaiba-//

Trying to shut out that impossible voice in his head, Seto opened his eyes. 

__

Hmm. Not much of an improvement.

Chipped, institutional-yellow paint on echoing walls. Oil stains darkening the concrete floor. A set of handcuffs chaining him to a steel pipe; chill, rust-stained metal that ran up into darkness. Some sort of underground parking garage?

__

Smack!

Ah. And the requisite leather-clad, grinning goon, bruising his knuckles for his master's pleasure. Seto smirked, ignoring the pull on a bleeding lip. _Please. You'd think they could come up with something unique._

//Normal?// Shock, in the voice that just... _couldn't_ be Yugi's. //You think this is _normal?_//

__

You dealt with Pegasus, Seto snapped back, before he could think twice. Two more glazed-eyed teens hanging back, probably a few more out of sight. And lurking in the shadows, a moving mass that had to be the grizzly. Not good odds. _Abusers are all alike. It's as if they read from the same script. Break bones, hearts, souls...._

A hand grabbed his chin, oozing something black and burning. //Is this unique enough, Seto Kaiba?// Alien thoughts. Alien voice, sneering and hurtful in his brain. //I can make it so much worse....// 

"Really." Kaiba let his gaze lift, meeting the purple-haired kidnapper with the same boredom he'd turn on a hapless underling. "So you read minds. I'm hardly impressed." 

//You will be!// Shadowy claws reached into Kaiba's thoughts, rending, tearing.

Pain. He could deal with pain. Gozaburo had taught him that. Pain was the enemy, but it never won unless you yielded to it. All you had to do was let your mind go blank, and endure-

//Stop, oh Yami help, it hurts it _hurts_-//

__

Yugi. 

Seto flung his mind around that pain-wracked presence, shielding it with memories of Mokuba, and waves crashing on the shore, and the fierce exultation of summoning a Blue Eyes to the field to destroy your enemy. _One breath more. Hold one breath more, and one more-_

Purple hair was damp with sweat, and there was a wild look in his captor's eyes. "I am Janus! Master of darkness. You should be groveling at my feet!" 

"How perceptive of you." _Breathe. Keep breathing._ Kaiba left his gaze somewhere in the middle distance, unwilling to let on that the room was making slow circles around him. "A bit more work, and you could make a living with carnival readings." 

This time the world went red. _Blood, my blood, running down the walls. Mokuba's blood...._

No. _Mokuba._

"Ohh...." As if from a great distance, Janus chortled. "I think I've found your little flaw...." 

Mokuba, bleeding on the stained concrete. Familiar eyes glazing over, staring accusation at the big brother who'd once more broken his promise to be there, to protect-

//Kaiba! Seto, hang onto me!// Small hands, grasping him in the midst of bloody horror. Familiar hands, a duelist's hands, full of warmth and light and waking, shaky anger. //It's not real, you know it's not real! Yami promised he'd watch out for Mokuba. He promised!//

Yami. Pharaoh. King of Games. 

One of the few creatures that had never lied to him... and never failed to retaliate against evil. 

__

Don't look. Don't see. It is not _real, it_ cannot _be_....

"Yami." Blood faded, left a ghostly image of his brother's broken body superimposed over Janus' frown. "The boy with the puzzle. How did he break my control?" 

He would not throw up. He would not. Steeling himself, Seto glared at the telepath. "I have no idea."

"Now, that would be a _lie_, wouldn't it, Kaiba-boy?"

__

Die screaming, you bastard!

Cuffs jerked Seto to a halt, shattered the image of Maximillian Pegasus and his tormenting cartoon rabbit into a far less cultured face. Out of reach, Janus snickered. "Oh you've got all _sorts_ of interesting little buttons to push, don't you, Kaiba-boy?"

Seto dragged in air. Rattled his cuffs down the pipe, so he could stand with something approximating dignity. "Pegasus had more power than you'll ever see in a lifetime, cur. And infinitely more style-" 

Shadows and pain. The haunting loneliness of being trapped in an enchanted card, alone with nothing but the knowledge he had failed, he had failed and Pegasus had everything....

And darkness covered all.


	3. Chapter 3

~*~*~*~*~  
"Huh. Not as tough as you like to think, are you, Kaiba-boy?" Janus felt the teen's face, searching for presence in the silence, something more to torment....

Nothing.

Very odd. This wasn't a simply unconscious mind; this was a _no one home_ mind. 

Or possibly not that odd after all. Kaiba had met telepaths before; no one had scars like that who hadn't been tampered with mentally. Faced with familiar torments, his mind had likely just taken the easy way out and shut down. 

Sabretooth stalked behind him, rough laughter growling in his tone. "If you broke him, I get the pieces."

"Not yet," Janus said sharply. Not until he knew why Yugi's dark side had denied his control, and how Kurt had suddenly shattered it. Kaiba's thoughts had been an insane mess when he searched them; something about two spirits in one soul, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and shadows coming to life. _Shadows like mine?_ He knew those shadows that came at his call, yanking darkness to life, crushing light away.

Shadows that had slipped through Kaiba like air. 

Why, _why_ he couldn't reach Kaiba's darkness? It should be there. It should be in full control of the programmer, allowing Janus to use him as he saw fit. 

It should be. Yet the deeper he reached, the more elusive Kaiba's dark side seemed. 

__

It's as if the child has _no darkness_....

__

Ridiculous. "You've taken the proper precautions?" 

"I couldn't track us down here. Wolverine won't have a chance." Fangs gleamed. "And if you can keep that freak Xavier from getting a mental lock, none of the others can get close." 

"Good." He knew how wounded minds behaved. For now, Seto was unreachable... but give it an hour, maybe two, and poor little Kaiba-boy's mind would sneak out to check the outside world for dangers. All he had to do was wait.

Meanwhile, he had three of his touched to win back. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Warmth wrapped around Kitty's hands. One was a familiar pair of furry fingers; the other, a weightless paw wrapped around Yami's card. _"Kitty?"_

Kitty frowned. That was Kurt... but what was Rahne doing by her bed? "Five more minutes, Mom...."

__

"Kitty, please, ye've got to wake up. I - there's two of me! And outside you and Yami, no one seems to know I'm here. But I'm no' so sure Yami will for much longer; the Professor's in a fine fit!"

"You've entered my home under false colors. Kept your mind shielded from me. Taken two of my students into another dimension and literally gambled with their lives. And I sensed you tampering with Shadowcat, Yami. God knows what damage you've done." The Professor's voice held a tight rage Kitty had rarely heard, even when the New Mutants had nearly wrecked the X-Jet on a joyride. "Do you truly expect me to believe we can trust you?" 

"Kitty was in deadly danger, Xavier. Far greater danger than you realize. She holds the power of shadows, and darkness such as Janus' loathes that more than light." Yami's boots clicked over the infirmary floor. "And as for using deception... who invited my hikari here under the pretense of friendship?"

"Pretense-!" Scott. And from the sound of it, Cyclops was about ready to flip up those glasses and do some serious damage. 

"Everybody," Kitty cleared her throat, "Knock it off!" 

"Kitty!" Kurt wrapped her in a hug as she sat up. Kitty tried to smile back, feeling her breath catch as she saw Rahne's translucent form gripping her hand... even as Rahne's solid self was lying unconscious on another infirmary bed, watched by Storm and Rogue. "We were so worried!" 

Looked like it. Everybody was here. Tea in a chair, one ankle swathed in ace bandages, arms wrapped around a wet-eyed Mokuba. Scott was between Yami and the Professor, Jean's hand on his shoulder. Beast was looking over Bobby and Tabitha's limp bodies, frowning at a medical chart. Even Logan, pushing through the infirmary door with a growl and a shake of his head toward the Professor. "Sorry, Charles. Lost 'em down the road. Smells like they took a van." He turned a speculative look on Yami, rattled off a quick question in Japanese. 

__

Something about Sabretooth? Kitty thought, listening hard for the few bits of English scattered in the flow of words. _Whoa. Wait. Logan knows Japanese?_

Yami scowled, one fist clenched. Answered, short, sharp, and angry.

A silent laugh vibrated Logan's frame. "I think I like you." 

Mokuba looked up. "But - my brother?" 

"He's alive." Yami's tone held no doubt. "As is Yugi. I would know if they were not."

"Yeah, right. Your 'heart of the cards'." Scott rolled his eyes. "The Professor looks over everything that comes through those doors. There aren't any weird energies in pieces of cardboard, or we would've heard about it. We've seen people suppress their mutant side before. Even build up a whole other personality for it. And there's no way Kitty is holding the 'light half' of Rahne's soul...." 

__

"That - that up-tight blind senior-" Rahne sputtered.

"Weren't any of you listening to me?" Kurt blurted. "I told you what I saw!"

"And what you say you saw was yourself trapped in a realm of shadows, even as you say you also were actually attempting to injure Mokuba under Janus' influence. Your memories are clouded," Xavier said regretfully. "Janus' psychic abilities must have tampered with them. You were _not_ in two places at once." 

"Oh yeah? What do you call this?" Kitty brandished her grip on Rahne's hand. 

"Kitty...." Scott looked at her fingers, shook his head. "There's nothing there." 

"Nothing we see, at least." The Professor's face shed anger like water, suddenly shocked. "Kitty? May I see what you remember?" 

__

If it'll stop those two from trying to kill each other? Kitty thought, gaze flicking from Scott to Yami. Yami's head was cocked slightly to the side, a silent challenge Cyclops was dying to take up. Eye-beams versus shadow magic... oh, she really didn't want to see this. _Poke around, Prof._

A gentle touch ruffled through memories of shadows, Kurt-who-wasn't, Yugi and Yami torn apart by blackness....

The Professor's fingers clenched on his chair. "I believe you all should see this." 

Kitty watched the flinches as memory transferred, the outright shock on Scott's face, the fear on Tea's. "You're a mind-reader," the brunette stammered. "Like Pegasus." 

"I assure you, I've never stolen anyone's mind." Xavier frowned. "If Rahne truly is here, why didn't you aid her as you did Kurt?" 

"She's been away from her dark half longer," Yami replied, moving to Kitty's bedside. "I didn't want to risk harming her by tearing her from Kitty's grasp." He held out a hand. "Are you willing to return, Rahne?"

__

"Y' have to ask?" Pearly tears trickled down the young shape-shifter's face. _"I didn't want to hurt anyone, truly I didn't."_

"I know." Right hand gripping her ghostly paw, Yami placed his left over her heart. "Be home, Rahne. Be well." 

Light shimmered across the Puzzle, sifted over fur like sun-struck glitter. Rahne sighed in her sleep, angry lines easing from her face.

Jean touched the furry face. "Is she-?" 

"Whole, yes. I sense her conscience reforming. Though her barriers are still low. Should Janus attack again, she'll have little defense." Xavier's face was grave. "So. Kitty's tale is the truth, then. Janus split you." 

"In a way. Janus' power allows him to call forth the darkness in a soul, leaving it in control as he crushes the light into the Shadow Realm." Yami's hand brushed the Puzzle. "But when my aibou was threatened, I was already in control. Janus merely - took Yugi from me." Violet eyes hardened, glinted ruby. "We must find him." 

Mokuba was pale. "But if Yugi's in the Shadow Realm...." 

"He's been there before. He's not helpless." Yami gazed at Xavier. "You know where to start looking for Janus?" 

The Professor leaned back in his chair. "I have an idea where we might start our search, yes." 

"Might?" A dark brow arched. 

"It will be difficult," Xavier went on levelly. "If Janus is controlling him, he won't want to be found." His gaze swept the Japanese trio, taking in cold fury, brotherly fear, Tea's wry anger. "Yet Janus kidnapped Kaiba, rather than control him... and despite what we've seen, none of you three seem to believe he _could_ control Kaiba. Why?" 

"My big brother isn't controlled by anybody!" Mokuba said defiantly.

Tea bit her lip, looked away.

"Open your mind," the Professor murmured. "Thank you, Ms. Gardner. Your memory's quite clear." 

Tea glared at the telepath. "Snoop!" 

"When I must." The Professor's eyes narrowed. "So. It was you."

"In a way." Yami's gaze never faltered. "Janus controls a soul's darkness. And I crushed the darkness from Kaiba long ago." 

__

Okay, Kitty thought, hearing the nervous chuckles from her fellow students. _Where did I miss the sign that said "Twilight Zone"?_

The Professor didn't seem to like the detour either. "That's impossible. You can't simply remove the more malign instincts of the human mind. You'd destroy it." 

"You confuse instinct and darkness, Xavier. A common mistake... and frequently, a fatal one." Yami's smile was wry, playful as a cat with a tender mouse. "Removing your darkness _would_ kill you, Xavier. Your spirit is bound to light, facing away from the ways of darkness; to strip it of that balancing evil would destroy you. But Kaiba walks the path of shadows, answering only to his own honor. Janus could no more control him than he could me." The dark half shrugged gracefully. "We must find Kaiba first." 

"You're not going." 

Ruby gleamed in violet. "Xavier-" 

"Young man, Kitty and Kurt were each exposed to Janus' toxin once, they're not metabolizing it well, and they are both, dare I say it, larger than you." Beast called up a chemical structure on one of the infirmary computers. "Between Janus' attempt to take you and your contact with Kitty, you've been exposed twice. Your blood is saturated with the poison." Dark eyes met ruby, grave. "Another dose could kill you." 

"And I have no assurance you're not truly still under Janus' control." The Professor's tone was level and cold as polished marble. "You're not leaving this infirmary."

__

You and what army, Professor? Kitty thought wryly. She saw Yami scowl, Storm tense, Scott raise a threatening hand-

Logan matched gazes with Yami. Gave the darker self one minuscule shake of head. Mouthed something she couldn't hear.

And Yami seemed to deflate, leaning against an examination table as if it were finally too much effort to stand straight. "Find them quickly, then." 

__

Say what? 

Tea and Mokuba were wide-eyed; Mokuba looked at the Professor with as much suspicion as his older brother had ever mustered.

"Good." Scott gave them a smug smile, gathered the troops with a wave of hand. "Let's go!" 

But Logan hung back a moment as the others left, crossing the room to murmur in Kitty's ear. "Ten minutes. Look after him." He straightened, glanced at Kurt. "And let him look after both of you."

__

Huh? Kitty blinked as Logan vanished out the door, let Beast run a few reflex tests and declare her relatively healthy. Felt the almost-subliminal tremor in the floor that indicated the underground hangar was in use. _Ten minutes? Until what?_

Watching the clock, Yami nodded. Cast a glance Tea's way. 

The brunette winked. Murmured something to Mokuba. Who looked up with such forlorn hope, it hit Kitty like a punch to the heart. 

"Poor kid." Kurt rubbed his eyes tiredly, evidently considering the merits of sacking out right on her infirmary cot. "I wish there was something we could do for him." 

"Dr. McCoy?" Mokuba gave their coach and head of the infirmary a shy, questioning look. "What's going to happen to Seto?" 

"Well...." The blue-furred teacher cleared his throat. "The toxin does break down over time. He should be fine. Here, let me show you. How are you in biochemistry?" 

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "I know what caffeine looks like." 

Distracted, Beast started calling up infirmary files. "Is that normally part of the curriculum at your age?" 

"No. But Seto was trying to explain why he lives on coffee...." 

Tea rose from her chair, grimacing as she tried to put weight on her foot. "Rogue? Could you... I mean, I need-" She blushed. "A little help?"

Gloved hands caught her. "Yeah, yeah, c'mon. Stay off that ankle, will you? Dancers," Rogue muttered. "Don't have the sense god gave a football player."

Yami stood, not a trace of his earlier weariness evident in his stance. Walked casually over to Kurt and Kitty. 

And held out a hand. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Darkness. Pain. Fear. 

//Kaiba?// 

No. Yugi wasn't here. No one was here....

//Kaiba, take my hand. Trust me. Please.//

Impossible. There was just - black. Never-ending, unrelenting; not even the pinpricks of stars.

Stubborn anger touched him; a bright blaze that called up memories of a pier, and a brainwashed glaze in Wheeler's eyes, and Malik's mocking laughter. //You call yourself a duelist? I _challenge_ you, Seto. Take my hand!//

Seto braced himself against the dark, flailing for his opponent. No one... _no one_ challenged him and walked away....

Shadows faded, shifting into forms of sunlight, blowing curtains, a laptop humming quietly on a desk. A familiar desk, every crack and flaw of the wood as comfortable as the back of his hand. 

And an all-too-familiar head of spiky, tri-colored hair, leaning on crossed arms where Yugi was perched on the backwards chair. "Kaiba?"

Seto blinked. _My bedroom?_ "This isn't real." 

"It is. Sort of." Yugi shrugged, puzzle gleaming in the sun. "It's your soul room. Though I've never ended up in someone else's soul room before...." 

__

I know this place. Seto paced the perimeter of the room, noting the odd sense of quiet. No birdsong. No traffic. None of the sounds that should leak through the window from Domino City. Just a gentle wind, and peace, and refuge from pain. "I used to come here," he murmured, half to himself. "When I couldn't get away." _When Gozaburo truly lost it, and - no. Don't think about it._ He glared at the shorter teen. "This isn't real-"

"It is!"

"-And even if it were," Seto ran over his protest coldly. "What would you be doing in my mind?" 

"I didn't have anywhere else to go!" Stubbornness creased violet eyes. "Janus has some kind of shadow powers. He threw me out of the Puzzle. I tried to hold onto Yami, but I couldn't! I felt the Shadow Realm sucking me in...." Yugi shivered, chafed bare arms. "I just tried to hold onto something familiar. I thought I'd grabbed Yami. Instead I get _you_." 

Ridiculous. Ludicrous. Insane.

Which pretty much summed up a typical day, when Millennium Items were involved. 

__

All right. Play along with the insanity. "And what am _I_ doing here?" 

"He was hurting you!" Yugi crossed his arms. "I pulled you down here with me. It should look like you just passed out."

Passed out? From that pitiful excuse for a madman's feeble manipulations? Of all the insults-

Yugi winced, hand up as if to ward off a blow. "Kaiba, would you stop that? He was - he was trying to _break_ parts of your mind, parts I don't know how to fix. Parts I'm not even sure Yami could fix. I'm trying to help you!"

Seto paused. Something was moving _inside_ his anger. Sorrow. Shock. Determination not to be hurt.

And none of it was his. 

__

Damn! "Janus," Kaiba gritted out, whirling toward the door. 

"Wha- no, he couldn't have. I hid us." Yugi frowned. Touched the puzzle, and reached out. 

__

Searching, hiding, swirling shadows to conceal them from the enemy....

Darkness rushed past the outer hall, bewildered and angry. 

"We're okay. He doesn't know we're here." Yugi smiled, looking almost as determined as his darker side. "For someone who can throw spirits into the Shadow Realm, Janus doesn't know much about magic." 

Magic. Of course. The situation had lacked only that to be completely and utterly _insane_. "You'd better check again. I can feel something trying to tamper with my mind." Yet it didn't feel like Janus. It felt warm, and pure, and comforting as the sound of Mokuba's sleeping sighs in the night. 

And it was close. Very close. 

__

I'm going to find it. Whatever it is. And then I'm going to kill it. 

"...Oh." Pink brushed Yugi's cheeks. "I - ah - really hope you don't try that, Kaiba. Fighting inside a soul room gets a little messy." 

Kaiba fought down the urge to stare, bug-eyed. _He can't mean what I think he means._ "No." 

"We're in the same body." Yugi advanced on him, slowly, hands out and empty. "We're sharing the same mind." 

"No." He had to move. Why couldn't he move? 

"Right now, we're part of each other." Fingers closed over his, never doubting he would let them. As if Yugi knew he craved that grasp. Welcomed it. "Please don't be afraid of me, Seto." 

__

I can't. 

I must. 

I want - no! I have to be alone. It's the only way to be safe, to keep Mokuba safe. I don't want- 

It burns....

"That's your magic, Seto. Reacting to mine." Somehow spiky hair was nestled under his shoulder, a slim arm wrapped around his waist. Holding him, as no one but Mokuba had held him in more years than Kaiba cared to remember. "If we could tap it, maybe we could get out of here... but I don't have the real Puzzle. Or my deck." 

__

You might have magic, Mouto, but I certainly do not- Kaiba bit back the words, scowling. He didn't want to hurt the trusting young soul. Much. "Get me back out there."

"But we don't-" 

"Surprise is better than magic. I know Yami's taught you that." Kaiba checked his shirt cuff for the lock-picks he'd started carrying since his brother had been chained and kidnapped. _I have them._ Whether he still had them in the real world, he wouldn't know until he got there. "Whatever he's using on me... on us... is toxic. We need to get out, and we need to get out now." 

"Seto...." Yugi reluctantly stepped back, looked up to meet his eyes. "It's your body. It's your choice. But - be careful?"

"Hmph." Kaiba arched a cool brow. "Do I look like Wheeler?" 

"Kaiba...."

Yugi's voice faded as Seto forced himself out of the room, stepping into black. Tingling, sore, arms held up at a steel-bound angle.... 

__

Ow. 

Careful. Eyes closed. Listen. Footsteps there, and there, compare it with the mental image of the underground room as he'd seen it - yes. 

Fingers working a pick out of his sleeve, Kaiba went to work on the first cuff. _Get this off, forget the other, just get loose from this pole and run._

Preferably turning one purple-haired mutant into toothpicks as he went. But that could wait. Much as Kaiba wanted to personally obliterate the man, Janus was a telepath. Better to let the annoyed Egyptian Pharaoh and his Millennium Puzzle take that fight.

A hideous scream rang out from the far corner. "My werewolf! They've taken my werewolf!" 

Kaiba suppressed a smirk. Yami was aware and rational, it seemed. _And now he'll be coming for you, Janus_....

"Sabretooth, stop him!" the mind-reader snarled. 

__

Crack! 

Head ringing, Kaiba felt the grizzly tear the pick from his hand. _Damn telepaths._

"Naughty, naughty, Kaiba-boy. Did I say you could leave?" 

Seto licked away blood from his torn lip, glared hate at the illusion of Pegasus. But for all its seeming solidity, it was an illusion. Just a copy of the man he hated, and a poor one at that. "I doubt such an original thought ever entered your mind." 

"Who needs to be original?" The mocking red suit blurred, turned thin and dark. Accent shifted as well, from Pegasus' American sneer to chill, too-familiar Japanese. "You are what I make you, Kaiba. And _only_ what I make you. Never forget that!" 

__

Gozaburo.

No. 

His adoptive father stood before him, dark brows drawn down in a contemptuous scowl, riding crop dangling from one clenched fist. Leather whipped up, slashed down-

__

No. No! This can't be real!

But the pain was real, and the searing heat on his back sharp as yesterday. Leather thickened, turned sodden with blood. Crimson dripped from Gozaburo's hand, thickening into shadow. 

__

Shadow creature... but Gozaburo never touched magic. Not even when I-

No. He would not remember. He knew what had happened. Gozaburo had finally threatened Mokuba, Seto had countered with the plain fact that _he_ now held Kaiba Corp, moved to throw the bastard out a window, and the ousted chairman had had a heart attack from the shock. That was it. That was all!

But the terror was back, and Seto could feel darkness whispering his name. _Call us... come to us. We can stop the pain. We can stop the fear. Call us, yield to us, and he'll never hurt you again._

No. No, he wouldn't. He couldn't. The price would be his heart.

__

Call us!

Save Mokuba!

Kill him!

And the darkness was creeping in, the darkness that had sealed him to loving nothing but power, until a fateful duel had shattered half his soul....

//That's it!// Frightened warmth wrapped around Seto, pulling him away from nightmare. //Kaiba, I'm taking over!//

~*~*~*~*~  
Crushing nightmare into the teenager, Janus licked his lips. Beckoned his newfound Shadow closer, ignoring the hasty clatter of feet as Sabretooth and his other touched backed as far from moving darkness as they could get. Luscious hate. Intoxicating fear. Writhing self-hatred. All the dark emotions he could feast on, so tantalizingly out of reach....

And light swept through the fingers of his mind, and Kaiba was gone. _What?! Not dead. That fool's too stubborn to be dead._

No, the boy was breathing. And... conscious?

"You're awake," Janus growled, seizing an ear as the boy tried to slump. "Who _are_ you?" Not Kaiba. Not a chance in the world. Not when he'd slipped the net of Kaiba-boy's fears like gossamer. 

Not with cold blue eyes turned so... innocent. For the first time that night, Seto Kaiba truly looked his age. 

"You've got to send it back, Janus." Even the voice was different. Softer. Gentler. Yet no less filled with fierce determination. "Send it back to the Shadow Realm. Now. Before it destroys you." 

"Send it back?" Janus snickered, stroking the Shadow by his side. Chill, so beautifully chill. So eager to do his bidding, for the privilege of hurting innocents. "Dream on."_ Seize him!_

Dark curled around his victim, guiding Janus' thoughts inward. He licked his lips, anticipating the lovely feast of hate. He'd seen this innocence in Kaiba's memories; Pegasus had savaged it, and the common thugs of a child's life, and a wild-eyed madman wielding gold that bent and warped the closest of friends against each other. _Here. It must be here_....

Sadness. Pity. A fierce, unwavering determination for justice. 

And not a trace of hatred.

__

What-?

Shadow recoiled with a hiss, shaking like wind-rattled leaves. Sapphire eyes watched it retreat, blue blazing brighter than flickering light could account for. //Yami, find us-//

Janus shook the teen, slicing the awareness of shrouding darkness into his mind. "He can't. No one can. Not while I hold this place as mine - _Yugi_." He chuckled then, a delicious thought coming to him. "But if you really don't like my friend, there's no need for him to stay." //Go. Seek. Kill!//

Sinking into the shadows behind a crate, the Shadow vanished. 

Chain rattled. "No!" 

"Oh, _yes_." //And you know right where I've sent it, don't you, little Yugi? Pity your poor friends... because we won't!//

Silence. 

"Gone again." Janus dropped the limp form in disgust, noting how even unconscious, Seto's grace kept him from further injury. "Just wait. A little more time, a little more strength, and I'll hunt you out no matter where you've hidden." 

But in the meantime, he had new friends to call.

~*~*~*~*~  
_Twenty, nineteen, eighteen_.... Strapped into his seat in the jet, Logan counted off the seconds.

//Logan? Why are you counting?//

With a trick of mental discipline Charles had taught him years back, Wolverine turned his thoughts toward their target. "So you think this Stanley Baxter we're looking for is Janus?" 

"The facial recognition algorithms show a close match," Xavier nodded. "And the young man's... past records are certainly dubious enough to indicate it's likely." 

Huh. Leave it to Charles to understate it. Weirdness spotted Stanley's police records like ink. Arrested who knew how many times, jailed only once, freed in a breakout by prisoners everyone thought had better sense.... 

And wanted on at least one count of attempted murder, when one of the guards had gotten in his way. _This could get ugly._

"So we start in the areas he's been sighted in and look for anything out of the ordinary," Scott summed up. "While you and Jean look for his mental signature, Professor." 

"Indeed. Though I believe-" 

The communications system warbled. "Storm," the weather-witch picked up. 

__

"They're gone!" 

Bingo. Logan checked the clock. Either Yami'd been running slow, or whatever he'd cooked up for a distraction had held Beast longer than it should have.

Charles turned a look of dawning comprehension Logan's way. "Hank, what-?"

"Oh, no," Jean groaned. "They didn't!"

__

"I'm afraid they did, Jean. All three of them. Tea and Mokuba pulled as neat a double-team as you've ever seen, I strongly advise you to not turn your backs on those two... and when I looked up, they were gone." 

"You knew." Scott's tone was dark. "You knew Yami was going to bust out of there."

"And if he had to, he was going to walk right through you, Cyclops," Wolverine stated bluntly. "This way, we're all heading after the real bad guy." 

"With Kurt and Kitty in our line of fire!" Gripping the controls, Storm looked ill. 

"They're _safe_, 'Roro." Wolverine growled, trying to figure out a way to put what he knew into terms his more peaceful associates would understand. Anyone who tried to kill Sabretooth - not knock him out, not disable, just stop the killer's heart right then and there - showed the kind of cold determination Logan wanted on his side. "Did you look at that fight, when Charles showed it to you? He pulled that hit on Rahne!"

"That's supposed to make us feel better?" Scott pounced. "You heard the Professor. He's Yugi without a conscience-" 

"No. He's not." Wolverine stared down that unwinking lens. "He's Yugi's partner. He _knows_ this Shadow Realm Janus is messing with." He didn't bother to look at Charles. "And he knows Kaiba's living on borrowed time." 

Jean arched skeptical red brows. "We don't know that, Logan." 

"The hell we don't," Logan snapped. "Janus doesn't know his ooze isn't going to work. He's going to dose Kaiba again. And again. Until he kills the kid." _And I wouldn't want to be in Janus' shoes if the idiot does._ Anybody who'd left Sabretooth limping probably only needed one clear shot.

Xavier's eyes narrowed. "Be that as it may, I will _not_ allow Yami to risk two of my students further." Touching the tips of his fingertips to his forehead, he concentrated. "Kurt. Kitty. Hear me...."

~*~*~*~*~  
//Hear me....//

Standing on the road outside the institute driveway, Kitty shivered. She was cold, she was tired, and she was about to get the worst chewing-out of her life. _Why did I think this was a good idea?_

Kurt looked up at the stars, trying to minimize the visual clues the Professor could use to find them. "We are _so_ dead...." 

"A mind-reader has great difficulty finding what he doesn't know." Drawing two cards from his deck, Yami smiled. "Ah. Old friends. This trick is more in Bakura's line than mine... but with willing assistance, it should work well. Will you trust me?" 

Kitty swallowed. Traded a glance with Kurt, as they both felt the Professor latch on. "Just make it fast!" 

The Puzzle glowed, sparking blue and rose light from one card, a swirl of forest greens from the other. "Dark Magician Girl! Celtic Guardian! Come forth!"

__

Say wha-

Blue and rose enveloped her. 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Gone!_

Jean Grey reeled back from the shock of familiar minds vanishing, swept out of reach by shadow and light. _Kurt! Kitty!_

"I believe they're alive." The Professor drew a sharp breath. "But - I've lost them." 

"How?" Storm demanded. 

"We had them. Then something shifted, and-" Jean shook her head, red hair flying. "Professor, what was that?"

"Yami." The Professor's gaze was dark. "His mind is... old. Full of traps. Of shadows. He's hidden them from us. Somehow." He glared at Logan. "And precisely _why_ should I have 'seen that one coming', as you so blatantly put it?" 

"He told you he didn't like mind-readers. He knows you don't like him. He definitely knows Janus is going to be keeping an eye out. You think he'd be loose if he thought either of you could catch him? Or anybody he brought to help?" Logan snorted. "Charles, you're dealing with something that's older than I am. He knows tactics." 

Cyclops' fist headed for the wall, stopped just short of bruising. "You couldn't have told us any of this before?"

"You weren't listening." 

"Presume," Storm said coolly, hovering over the outskirts of town, "That we are listening now." 

"We don't know where Yami is, Ororo." Logan arched a thick brow. "But we know where he's going."

"So if we find Janus, we find Kurt and Kitty," Jean said, trying to put up a brave front. Recalling that vast sense of light and power and the readiness to do battle, sweeping away all she knew as her friends. 

"Or whatever he's made them." Xavier's hands clenched on his seat. "Yami has a great deal to answer for." 

~*~*~*~*~  
Celtic Guardian rose in a whisper of leather and green cloak, sword glinting in the starlight. He had been summoned, along with another of the Pharaoh's magical allies, yet there seemed to be no battle-

"Kurt." Yami's hand rested on his gauntlet, urging him to sheathe his blade. "It's all right. The battle is yet to come." 

Kurt. Yes... here and now, he was Kurt. A cascade of memories came with the name; classes, faces, the cold shock of knowing he was Mystique's abandoned son, mixing oddly with the sure knowledge of the sword by his side, the endless battles he'd fought down the millennia in the Shadow Games. _This is so weird_. "Kitty?" 

Yes. That kneeling, dazed swirl of short pink and blue skirts, one hand touching her tall, armored hat, the other clinging to her blue-and-gold wand... was Kitty. 

__

Dark Magician Girl. We're not usually on the battlefield together, but I know you so well. We fight when the need is greatest; and though we often perish, our blows turn the tide. 

"No one's going to die today." Yami's hand gripped his; firm, reassuring. His smile was warm. Daring. Familiar. "The power and memories of the Celtic Guardian will mask you from Janus, and Xavier, as Yugi once shielded me from Pegasus. They're searching for two humans, not an elf and a magician."

__

Elf? Kurt gulped. Sure, Kitty called him fuzzy-elf. But he was a human. A mutant. Not a creature out of mist and magic. 

"It's only for a time. I promise." 

Kurt looked at him askance. "Are you telepathic?" 

"No. But I can sense some thoughts. Especially when they're rooted in my own deck." Yami helped him lift Kitty to her feet, granted her a quiet smile. "Are you well? This was a stronger magic than I usually call."

"Um... can I get back to you on that?" Kitty glanced at the length of her skirt, blushed. "Who came up with this outfit?" 

"I believe it may have been the Dark Magician." Yami didn't quite laugh. 

"Yeah, that's Djet's sense of humor, all right-" Kitty stopped, wide-eyed. "I remember him." She looked at the deck in Yami's hands. "I remember all of them. Gaia, Silver Fang, the Soldier of Stone...." 

__

Koumori Dragon, Feral Imp, the Summoned Skull, Kurt thought. And others; allies, traps, spells to heal, hide, and slay. He knew the magic dwelling in that deck, augmented by the Puzzle's ancient enchantment. 

"And well you should." Yami tucked the cards away. "I can sense that Kaiba is alive. But I can't find him. The Puzzle doesn't have that sort of power, not over one who's never admitted he's my friend." A gold-touched brow lifted. "But you carry the magic of the Dark Magician Girl, Kitty. And we've faced Kaiba's deck before."

"The Blue Eyes White Dragons," Kurt blurted. He remembered them. Their grace. Their power. Their dying forms on castle battlements, heads falling to his blade, before Yugi had ordered him to _stop_-

Kitty whistled. "Talk about your auras that ought to glow in the dark." She lifted her wand, scribed a swift, sapphire sigil in air-

Watched it flair, glowing fiercely toward downtown Bayville. "Bingo!" 

~*~*~*~*~  
Feet swinging as he sat on the infirmary table by Rahne's sleeping form, Mokuba watched Rogue slouch in another chair, fiddling with her spiked collar. _Why spikes? Yugi and Seto like leather, I know, but all that sharp metal... ouch._

"Are you listening, young man?"

Mokuba jerked upright. "Uh, sure?"

Dr. McCoy scowled at him and Tea. Clawed fingers tapped against the blue-furred arm, an impatient drum half out of time with various heart monitors. "Of all the ill-thought, hastily-conceived, melodramatic plans the two of you had to come up with-" 

The twelve-year-old tried not to yawn. The infirmary lights were dim, just warm glows near Beast's workstation. It was getting late; or getting early, as Seto sometimes said. Running from bad guys always made him tired. And frankly, he'd heard Seto chew out security guards with more flair when his big brother was running on no sleep, one eggroll, and a headache....

__

What was that? 

Mokuba shivered, sneakers still as gray-blue eyes searched the shadows. Something had moved in the back of the room. Something that shouldn't be there. 

Something that, from the chills running laps down his spine, shouldn't be anywhere.

And from the quick clasp of Tea's hand on his, she felt it too. 

Mid-lecture, Beast stopped. "What is it?" 

Tea started easing out of her chair, wincing as she put weight on her bandaged foot. "We have to get out of here." 

"We have to hit the lights." Mokuba dug into his vest pocket, glad once more that Seto wouldn't let him out of the Kaiba mansion without a miniature set of emergency supplies. _Flashlight, check._

Darkness squirmed, just out of the corner of his eye. A tentacle of night swept over Bobby Drake's sedated form. Drew the ice-casting mutant upright with blank, night-black eyes. 

"Bobby!" 

Mokuba grabbed Beast's arm, held him back as the tentacle oozed toward Boom-Boom. "Uh-uh. That's _not_ Bobby." 

Rogue backed up toward them, pale as her makeup. "What the _hell_ is that?" 

Mokuba swallowed, memories of dark and emptiness rising up like restless ghosts. "It's a Shadow." 

"Now would be a _really_ good time for the lights," Tea said tightly.

"Indeed." Beast reached for the switches nearest him-

And for the second time that day, the infirmary power went out.

~*~*~*~*~  
Cyclops rubbed his fingers over the seat arm as Storm set them down near their target. Watched Jean as she concentrated, a faint smile creasing pink lips. "Are you sure?"

Eyes still closed, the telempath nodded. "He's pretty sure we can't find him. So we looked for the place where we couldn't find anything." 

__

Right, Cyclops thought dryly, looking out the windows toward the run-down underground garage she and the Professor believed was Janus' base. _Look where you can't see. Makes perfect sense_.

"There is a certain unmistakable feel of emptiness to a thick shield," the Professor observed. "Have a little faith, Scott." 

"I'd rather have my teammates back. In one piece." He cut a glance at Logan as they disembarked, daring the older mutant to contradict him. He didn't care how much Wolverine liked the guy. Yami was _dangerous_.

__

Who'd have thought a little kid like that was hiding a killer?

The Professor could sugarcoat it as "darkness" all he liked. When it came to Sabretooth, Scott knew the kinds of things that made Logan happy. Most of which involved mass destruction.

Storm took to the air; Xavier withdrew back into the jet, sealing the door against potential intruders. The rest of them fanned into a loose group, searching for any sign of guards. Wolverine took point, sneaking toward the nearest door, claws not yet out.

__

Let this guy be dumb, please let this guy be dumb, Scott prayed, as they drew closer without rousing defenders. He'd really had enough of twisted, too-bright people like Magneto, and Mystique, and even the Brotherhood. Was it too much to ask of the universe for this one bad guy to have a sudden attack of stupidity?

//Hank! This is hardly the time-//

//I _am_ sorry to bother you, Charles-// Even through the Professor's transmission of Beast's radio call, Scott could hear the glassy _crash_. //But we have a situation I didn't want you walking back into - Amara! Now!//

Lava beating back ice; about five of Jamie swarming a dead-eyed Boom-Boom; Tea, Mokuba, and a host of sleepy New Mutants slashing at shadowy tentacles with flashlights, flares, and a torrent of inventive Japanese curses. Scott blinked away the images, wondering why his neck was prickling. It was quiet. No sign of a watcher. And from Wolverine's scowl, the door was unlocked.

He felt the Professor's sharp worry. //We'll send someone back-//

//We'll handle it, Charles! Have some faith in your students.// Fire, and a shriek - and the hiss of Tea's fire extinguisher, smothering a smoldering rug. 

__

He's right, Professor, Scott pointed out, seeing Jean look longingly at the jet. He couldn't blame her. The younger kids were in danger. Every instinct shouted at him to go home and protect them.

Except that instinct was wrong. _If that's some kind of shadow - it's got to be Janus. We've got to stop this at the source_.

"Good call, Cyke," Wolverine murmured. Sniffed the air as Storm descended, making an all-clear sign. "Sabretooth's in there. And six or seven more. Janus. Kaiba... doesn't smell too healthy. We better be quick." Thick brows drew down. "Something's screwy. Sabretooth smells scared."

__

Sabretooth? Scared? Good lord, Yami couldn't possibly have gotten here before they had-

And shadows surged over them.

~*~*~*~*~  
A patch of subtle green rustled in the ground floor of the garage, unfolding into a trio hiding under the Celtic Guardian's cloak. Kurt stared at the shadows swarming out the open door, hearing Wolverine's guttural snarl, a thump of crates hurled by telekinesis, the distinctive whine of Cyclops' eye-beams. Swallowed, and drew up the rear as his companions snuck across the garage's down ramp, closing the steel fire-door quietly behind them as they entered the stairwell leading down. "They went right past us?" 

Yami's laugh was quiet, barely ringing off gray-painted steps. "You are wearing an elven cloak."

Point. Though he'd never seen that power come into play in the game-

Kitty swung her staff in front of Yami, catching the dark half as he stumbled. "Kurt!" 

"I'm all right," Yami muttered, trying to shake off Kurt's hand as the Guardian held him upright. "We must keep going." 

"You need a breather," Kitty said bluntly. "Multiple teleports take it out of anybody. Your aura's _faded_." 

Ruby eyes closed; the spirit sighed. "And it will only continue to worsen." Yami met their gaze frankly. "Since we bonded, I've never been severed from Yugi for so long. Without his energies to sustain me, without his living mind to call me out... the Puzzle drags at me. Trying to reclaim me." He gestured to himself. "And without a spirit to hold this body to life, Yugi will have nowhere to return to." 

Kurt sucked in a breath. "Why didn't you tell the Professor?" 

Weary sorrow touched ruby. "Would he have believed me?" 

"Um, that would probably be... no." Kitty admitted. Tensed. "What's that?" 

Kurt jerked around, feeling a prickling chill crawl down his spine. Sensing old instincts rise, claim hold on mind and hand; an enemy was here, the battle was about to be joined-

__

Shing! 

Silvered steel sang through shadow, slicing away the talons heading for his heart. Kurt felt a laugh rise up in his throat, turned it into a deceptive swirl of cloak and another deadly thrust of his blade. Mother of Forests, there were so _many_ shadows.

"Dark burning attack!" Kitty struck out with blue and rose light, vaporizing tentacles in a cone before her staff. 

Yami was hanging back behind them both, Puzzle bright around his neck, ducking and striking hand to tentacle as they battled down flights of stairs. From somewhere he'd produced a pocketknife that now glowed with the Puzzle's golden light, searing where it struck shadow.

__

Shadow magic, the Guardian's memories told Kurt. _For all his power, the Pharaoh has little defense against living shadows. That's why he called you._

Or rather, why he'd called the Guardian. But it was getting harder to tell the difference. 

And darkness swarmed up the steps, and there was no more time to think. 

~*~*~*~*~  
Fingers, rubbing his cheek. Brushing back chestnut hair, gentle as a beating wing. "Seto. Please wake up."

__

No. If he stayed here, he was safe. Everyone was safe. If he stayed here, he'd never call the shadows again. Mokuba would never see. Mokuba would never know his big brother, the one he loved best in all the world, was a....

__

Murderer. That's what you are, Seto Kaiba. Nothing more. 

You learned too well from Gozaburo, after all....

"No!" A hot, salty drop splashed onto his throat. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that happened to you. But it's over, Seto. He can't hurt you anymore. Please come back to me." 

A bitter laugh parted Kaiba's lips. Yugi? Worried that Gozaburo would hurt _him?_ "I killed him." _Murdered him, and fooled everyone into believing he'd dropped dead of his own black heart. _

Even myself.

"It wasn't murder!" 

Blue eyes snapped open, glared at the smaller teen. "How would you know? You weren't there!" No one was there. No one would dare cross Gozaburo Kaiba to protect them - to protect Mokuba. No one but a fourteen-year-old with bloody hands.

Yugi didn't flinch. "There was a man. Before you came to our school. I don't even know his name. He attacked me." Yugi swallowed, light from the soul room's windows casting shadows over his face. "And Tea."

__

No, Seto thought, feeling a flutter of unfamiliar fear through the black guilt engulfing him. _Please don't let_... that _have happened. Not to Tea._

Why did he even care? 

"Yami took over. Challenged him. And... killed him." Yugi's hands clenched. "I didn't try to stop him."

"But...." _That was your yami. Your darkness. Your defender._

"I could have stopped him," Yugi said quietly. "Even then. Even when I didn't know he was... more than just part of me." 

__

I could have stopped the shadows. 

"But I didn't want to." 

__

I hated him so much. For what he did. For what he was going to do. 

"Someone had to stop him." 

__

He was going to kill everything I loved.

"So I just - let loose." 

And Seto could see the crumpled body of the would-be rapist, eyes wide and dilated and dead, feet away from Tea's unconscious form. Felt the dark thrill that was Yami triumphant, the ebb of deadly shadow magic from his hands. Another challenge met, another challenger destroyed, and the Shadow Games eager to his call....

"I didn't know we were going to kill him." Yugi kept a grip on his shoulder, drawing him back from the memory. "And you didn't know you could kill Gozaburo. You were trying to stop him. No matter how much you wanted to kill him, you didn't know you could!" Wide eyes bore into his, pure and sincere as flawless amethyst. "It's _not_ your fault he died."

Seto swallowed dryly. "But I did kill him." _And it could happen again. The Shadows... I can still feel them_.

"But you didn't call the Shadows. Not this time. Janus did. Janus...." Yugi's grip weakened; he swayed.

Seto caught him, absently noting that odd sense of burning had faded. Yugi still felt warm in his arms, but comfortably warm. Like pressing up against the mansion's fireplace bricks in his favorite spot, a bare inch away from where they'd be too hot to touch. "You're cooler." 

"Can't be," Yugi murmured. "Magic never goes away. You must have just shifted yours to fit better...." Tri-colored spikes flattened against his shirt. 

__

No. I don't have magic. I don't know magic. I was not _a priest in ancient Egypt, I do_ not _know the weight and heft of shadows like my own program code...._ "You're ill." Kaiba felt the same sickness pressing on himself; a lurch in his senses, a clarion call of alarm from his distant body.

"He's killing us." Violet eyes were fever-bright. "Kaiba, please. We have to get out of here." Small hands gripped his. "You have to _believe_."

__

I don't-

Trusting warmth, nestled in his arms. Leaning on him. Counting on him. As Mokuba had always counted on him. 

__

I don't want you to die here.

And... I _don't want to die here. _

Seto swallowed. "Yugi, I don't remember - I don't know-" Damn, he couldn't get the words out. "Spells. I don't-" 

"We won't need spells. Not if we're fast enough." Yugi's smile was warm comfort, edged with a glint of daring. "Yami's magic, my magic, is of Shadows. We need the Puzzle to channel it. But you're a sorcerer, Seto. A Duelist. You always have been." Yugi's hand squeezed his. "Just reach for the Heart of the Cards." 

Teeth fixed in his lip, Seto closed his eyes and reached out. _Mokuba... my Blue Eyes_.... 

Lightning, and a roar, and a snap of unfurling wings. 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Here. Yugi's got to be here._ The Dark Magician Girl seared shadows out of existence as the Celtic Guardian sliced through the stairwell lock. She could feel the cord of magic that bound her Pharaoh to his lighter half thrum, the bond trying to reestablish itself in the midst of chaos. It was singing, high and faint in her astral senses, reinforcing threads stretched too thin with an even finer link. A link whispering of sky, and lightning, and three dragons' hearts.

__

Kaiba. A grin stretched her face, fed her magic with the strength of sudden hope. _Yami was right. Find one, find both._

//Who - what-?// Shocked realization. //Kitty?//

Uh-oh. She _knew_ that probe. Just as she knew the percussive thump of Cyclops blasting his way down the spiraling garage ramp, the crackle of Storm's ball lightning driving back shadows with actinic light. 

//My god, what has he done... Scott! They're down there!//

No time for subtlety now, not with the Pharaoh fading fast. The Guardian kicked open the door in a clang of steel, slashing shadow away from them as Dark Magician Girl sought Kaiba's familiar, white-scaled auras.

Auras that flared, anger and love and magic flinging one entity into burning, physical life.

__

"Blue Eyes White Dragon, arise!"

~*~*~*~*~  
Rolling down the ramp, fang to bared fang with Sabretooth, Wolverine caught a stink of illness. A tang of adrenaline. A furious shout-

Ozone smashed into enhanced senses, tore the two foes apart, choking and gasping for air. Logan shook his head clear, snarled, prepared to leap on his mortal enemy-

And stopped. 

__

Biggest damn lizard I ever saw....

Not that _lizard_ even vaguely applied to the lithe shape of silver-white that curved between its master and the Shadows, shattering Kaiba's chains with one massive claw. Wings furled and spread, beating air laced with static; sapphire eyes glared down, wide and wild and furious as Kaiba's own. 

For once in his life, Wolverine wondered if he might be in over his head. 

Sabretooth swiped at him, and Logan shook off the fear. Block, block, slice; hook an ankle under one of Jean's thugs before he got too close to the telekinetic-

The fight came in flashes, then; bits of images, filtering past berserk rage. Storm, hurling glowing balls of static at cringing shadows, letting bolts dance between herself and the shaking light fixtures. Cyclops cutting loose with force beams at Shadows and thugs alike, some splashing off hardened blackness to cut walls and ceiling. Jean tossing Janus' stray thugs around like telekinetic tenpins, powers yanking a steel locker open before jamming semi-conscious gang-bangers inside. Kurt and Kitty - that _was_ Kurt under the leather armor, though his scent seemed different somehow - clearing a path for Yami with blade and rose-hued fire. 

Yami's scent was ill. Exhausted. Absolutely, utterly enraged. 

And he was headed toward the snarling dragon like a heat-seeker sniffing B-52 exhaust.

Even lost to berserker fury, Logan felt a chill. _Whatever he's gonna do, let him have good aim._

~*~*~*~*~  
Dodging eye-beams, Shadows, and flung magic, Yami laughed. Yugi's presence tugged at his bond, bright and defiant and furious. Almost as furious as Kaiba himself. _So much for "I have no memory of magic"._

The dragon snarled, scaled head swiveling to fix on Janus. His razor-fanged maw opened, light building in his jaws. *Torture _my_ holder, will you?*

__

"White Lightning!" 

Shadows wailed and perished, sucked between their summoner and his enemy. Janus shook behind a stray, oil-stained crate, staring up in pure disbelief. The Blue Eyes snorted, sucked in breath-

Halted, glancing down at his caller. *Seto?*

Yami caught the bloodied CEO as he fell, easing him down to cool concrete. Eyed the power-torn ceiling for one long moment before he dragged Seto's lanky form a few feet back. _Wounded, feverish... oh, aibou, he's hurt you so._

//Yami?...//

//Yugi!// Yami clutched Seto to him, shutting his eyes against the Puzzle's glow. He felt the bond begin to reweave itself, thread by fragile thread. Felt the odd echo that was Kaiba's mind wrapped around his hikari, stubborn anger holding his dragon here, warding them from the ongoing battle, even as his body failed. 

Odd. But never mind it; he had Yugi. And his hikari's strength was filtering in, hushing the Puzzle's insistent call. //My tenshi, my own. I was so afraid I'd lost you.//

//...Don't let him get away.//

//_Never._// "Janus!" 

His shout stilled the world, slowed ruby beams and mutant lightning to faded gray. Janus stared, barely noticing the Shadows wrapped around his arms, jaw agape as he saw allies and enemies alike stutter into stillness.

__

Welcome to the Shadow Realm. Fool. "You started this duel when you sent Tabitha against us," Yami said grimly, Seto still nestled in his arms. "And now, I'll finish it." _Dragon. Here stands one who harmed my hikari, and your master. Will you aid me?_

*What is it you plan, Pharaoh... ah.* The long tail lashed; white wings spread with a raging hiss. *You would have me stand aside?*

__

I have never lied to your master, Yami thought coolly. _And I shall not lie to you. Will you trust me, great one?_

Fangs bared; the scaled neck bent reluctantly down. *...Yes.*

"The rules are simple." Yami lowered Seto gently to the floor. "The way to the door is clear. No one will touch you. Either of us may move - once - anywhere we like, and touch any one person we choose, save each other." Dark brows drew down. "I'll even let you move first." 

Janus glared. "This is a trick." 

"It's no trick, Janus." Yami smirked as he felt the mutant pry at his mind, sensed Yugi shuffle his own thoughts into the path of the probe. Thank the gods, his aibou had no clue of his plans... and with a mind-reader involved, knew better than to ask. "Choose your move. But choose wisely."

Janus' eyes narrowed. Glanced to the stairwell. Noted the clear path, the powerful foes helpless to stop him. 

And - slowly, almost against his will - turned back to Kaiba. 

__

In the Shadow Games, your true nature is revealed.... 

Anger leaked from the unconscious CEO like red mist, drawing Shadows like a blood trail.

Janus licked his lips. Strode roughly across the garage floor, gaze daring Yami to stop him. 

__

As if I would break my own rules. Twice a fool.

Went to one knee by the luscious fount of rage and pain, and seized Seto's arm. 

"You've lost." 

"What?" Janus tried to pull back. Yanked harder, muscles straining against empty air. "Let go of me!" 

"You made your move. But Seto isn't one person right now, Janus." Yami smirked, feeling the Horus eye flare brightly on his forehead. "You broke the rules. And for that... you pay the penalty." 

Reaching back, he tapped the Blue Eyes.

"You said no one would touch me!" Janus shrieked. 

"Hmm. So I did." Ruby eyes gleamed. _"White Lightning!" _

Roaring, the dragon reared back. And blasted the shattered ceiling. 

Right over Janus. 

Tumbling slow and gray through the Shadow Realm, concrete-sheathed steel fell.

__

Shh-thuck.

"You chose your own fate, Janus." Yami regarded the glazing eyes, the spreading pool of blood under purple hair. "No one will touch you. Not to harm you... and certainly not to save you."

Breath rattled in Janus' throat. The twitching body slumped, releasing a misty form that screamed as Shadows seized it - then shattered. 

Yami sighed, feeling the mortal world return. Sensed the Blue Eyes fade back into Seto's deck, confident his duty was done. Heard the fight die, the whispers, the shocked protests, as those about him realized what lay in their midst. "Game over." 


	4. Chapter 4

~*~*~*~*~  
His teacup was rattling against his saucer. 

Seated in his study, absently ignoring the muted sobs from Jean and Scott's corner, Professor Charles Xavier observed the curious phenomenon. Searched for any nearby traces of psychic energy that might be jarring the fine porcelain, and failed to note any. Storm hadn't raised so much as a hint of static since she'd huddled into an overstuffed chair. The New Mutants were back in their beds... or sleeping bags, given the damage caused by Boom-Boom, Bobby, and one loose Shadow. And from the sense of minds around him - and the silence of the mansion's much-taxed security systems - it wasn't a result of a mutant power such as Avalanche's. 

Yet the cup was shaking rather vigorously now, milk-lightened tea sloshing near the edge-

"Put it down before you drop it, Charles." 

Logan. Carrying an incongruous tray of plain, steaming mugs, one of which he jabbed in Storm's direction. The weather-witch took it automatically, wrapping dark fingers around brown ceramic as if it were the last source of warmth in the world.

Xavier frowned. "I hardly think this is the time for-"

"Tea. Down. Now." 

...Oh. It'd been his hand shaking, all along. How odd.

Xavier sipped the salty broth, taking in the familiar tastes and textures of chicken soup. Onion, a hint of garlic, the comforting just-tough-to-the-tooth slide of a noodle. How incredibly ordinary. 

How jarringly different from the creature now ensconced in his infirmary. 

"Between the ceiling falling and the lightning blasts, I think we wiped the evidence clean," Logan stated, cupping hands around his own mug after glaring Scott and Jean into taking theirs. "The hoods in the locker were pretty out of it before you got to them, and Sabretooth's not going to talk."

Xavier shuddered. "How can you possibly think of avoiding the law at a time like this?" 

"Somebody's gotta." Logan's smile was wry. "Don't think the cops would understand self-defense by way of ceiling."

"Self-defense-!"

"Yeah." Logan slurped his soup. Looked over at Jean, huddled into Scott's shoulder. "You go ahead and cry, lady. Get it all out. I've seen some ugly things; that was bad." Glanced back at Xavier. "But it was the right thing to do."

Rubbing his girlfriend's arm, Scott glared. "We could have stopped him!"

"Yami did stop him." Wolverine fixed the teen with an unwavering stare. "Listen up, Scott. You want to lead the X-Men? This is the worst lesson a leader's got to learn. The worst anybody ever has to teach." Fingers clenched on his mug. "Sometimes, you have to choose who dies."

Xavier shook his head, denying the argument. "That's no lesson for anyone in my school, Logan."

__

Then we better take this conversation private, Prof. Now. Anger curled around the edge of Wolverine's thoughts. _Because you're about to make the worst mistake of your life -and maybe the last one of theirs._

//It's no mistake to show mercy, Logan.//

__

It is when that's the only weapon you give them, Charles! But the fury was damped, controlled; a thinking rage, not Wolverine's berserk fury. _Did you look around that lair of his? Did you check the scents? Did you see the wallets Janus left piled in a corner, when his little "toys" broke and he gave them to Sabretooth? What's it take to get through your head that Janus was killing people?!_

//We could have held him-//

__

You don't know that. You don't know anything about these Shadows, Charles. Yami does - and Yami picked the option he _thought would keep his people safe_. A thick brow rose. _Thought you didn't like to second-guess experts, Charles._

//Expert? That inhuman, arrogant, psychopathic, manipulative-// Xavier set his mug down with a thump. //Have you any _idea_ what's going on down in that infirmary, Logan?//

__

No. What? 

//It's - it's-// Xavier grimaced, and opened his perceptions of the not-quite-sleeping minds below.

Love. Glittering, perfect trust. Two minds in one like interwoven hands, coaxing warmth from each other. 

And an unmistakable snicker. //...He made a rather interesting _splat_.// 

//Ick! Yami!//

//Sorry, aibou.// The feeling of lips nuzzling under spiky hair filtered through, chaste and loving as a brother's kiss. //It's over. It's done. I have you back. My light, my angel....//

//My second self... but what are we going to do about Seto?//

//Hmm... there should be a way to get you back where you belong. The Puzzle holds your spirit as fiercely as mine, after all. Though it would be best to wait until we're rested. While you remain within Kaiba, he heals as we usually do; with the strength of two spirits. And he needs that strength, aibou. Dr. McCoy claims he came too near to death as it was, and I did not take such pains to lose such a priceless treasure as an honorable opponent now-// Flickers of irritation touched Yami's thoughts like far-off lightning. //Xavier.// 

Annoyance that echoed and reechoed from Yugi, sun-bright to storm-cloud dark. //Oh, kami-sama... Professor, haven't you ever heard of knocking?//

Light and dark roiled together, gathering force like a sandstorm. //If I can sense you, I can challenge you. _Leave._// 

"Erk." Blinking, Wolverine slugged back soup. "That was-"

"Both of them," Xavier acknowledged. Rubbed his eyes, and wished, fruitlessly, that he'd never made that last phone call to Japan. "Logan... when Yami told Tea and Mokuba he'd _handled_ the problem, their first thought was 'dead or insane'. No surprise. No horror. They simply accepted it."

"And Yugi's such a cute little kid, too," Logan muttered. "Charles...."

"How many bodies has he left behind?" Xavier gazed into the depths of his mug. "What do I tell Solomon?"

Logan sighed. Set his mug down. Leaned over the desk, and met Xavier eye to stark, serious eye. "You don't." 

~*~*~*~*~  
Kaiba came to himself in a tumble of sheets, a huddled curl on a sunlit, soundless mattress. _Where... what_....

He remembered lightning. An earth-shaking roar. The sudden, wondrous thrill of _knowing_ the pattern of magic, of living half in himself, half in the mind of the winged glory that had come at his call. He'd struck, and missed, and tried to strike again-

And now he was back in his silent refuge, shut off from the world.

No. Not quite silent. 

"...And then Amara threw this ball of lava at the Shadow, and it squealed, and threw some of the fire back, and the rug went kind of _whoosh_, and Tea blasted it with the fire extinguisher-" Mokuba paused for breath. 

"Then Rogue slashed it with a flashlight, and it lost control of Tabitha long enough for a bunch of Jamie's duplicates to jump her." An echo of sensation filtered through; Tea's fingers, caressing his palm. "It was wild." 

"Sounds like you guys had as bad a night as we did." 

That was his voice, Kaiba realized. Yet that wasn't him answering... and his hand was wrapped around fingers that had never gripped him of their own free will. //Yugi!//

//You're awake!// Relief, calm; a tickling affection, curling around his thoughts like ribbons of sunlight. //We were starting to get worried. Dr. McCoy said we got the toxin out, pretty much. And Yami thought he'd found everything Janus did. But we weren't sure, and the Professor doesn't know enough about Shadows to really know what he should be looking for-// 

Janus. The name dredged up odd scraps of memory; challenge given, challenge accepted, the knowledge his eyes were pure ruby as Shadows claimed their prize.

Yami. That was Yami's memory, woven into his own. 

Yet it felt like his. Felt... familiar, like the locket still around his neck.

__

Stay calm. Stay calm. //You're using _my body_ to talk to Mokuba?//

//Well... you weren't awake.// 

Kaiba held back a snarl of irritation. //Fine. I'm awake _now_-//

A double chuckle brushed him, and he knew neither Yugi nor his other had been fooled. //Just come forward,// Yugi said, matter-of-fact as if he traded minds every day. //It's not hard.//

__

Of course. He does _do this every day_. Concentrating, Kaiba willed himself out of the sunlit sanctuary, back to life and a whip-slashed back and weariness.... 

Blinked back infirmary lights, and realized that nothing hurt nearly as badly as it should. _How?_

"We were able to work a healing spell while you were out." Yami nodded to Tea; together, they helped him sit up. "How do you feel?" 

The CEO scowled, taking in the watching eyes of Xavier and Logan, the pile of his clothes just out of reach, the too-familiar lines of bandages on his back, the airy chill of his hospital gown where the sheets weren't bunched up against him. _No. If they've undressed me, they've seen... I'll kill them._

But there was a worse problem. 

__

My deck. Where's my deck? 

Chill. Calm. "I have a headache that talks. I believe it's yours." A headache Kaiba could still feel laced into his thoughts, touching, influencing.... _Stay out of my mind!_

//Seto, please? I was just talking to them; I don't want to miss anything.// A hesitation. //And if we share the pain, it doesn't hurt you as much.//

Share the pain? Why would Yugi want to share his wounds?

"Seto!" 

And his arms were full of black-haired brother, warm and worried and breath hitching in silent sobs. "Mokuba," Kaiba murmured, feeling tears soak through white cotton. Breathing in the apple-scent of shampoo, a hint of leather, a trace of pure sweet that meant someone had let his brother demolish a bowl of vanilla ice cream. "Mokuba, it's all right. I'm here." 

"I was so worried...." 

//It was close,// Yugi said soberly. 

//Too close,// Yami agreed, grim. 

Xavier cleared his throat. "Most of your injuries appear to have been psychosomatically induced," he offered. "A reawakening of what Hank tells me were... repeated old traumas." The telepath frowned. "We asked your brother if he knew the source of your injuries. He claims it's none of our concern." 

__

You asked Mokuba.... Calm. Bank the rage. "It isn't," Kaiba said flatly. 

Xavier's face creased in professional concern. "I know you must find it difficult to speak of. But there are certain techniques developed to assist those in your situation-"

"My _situation_ is none of your business, Xavier." _It's over. It's done. And if I intended to speak of_ that _to anyone - ha! - it would_ never _be you._ "Where is my deck?" 

"Well, after the Professor saw Kurt and Kitty, and they were pretty exhausted, and... we kind of compromised." Tea eyed the telepath, took two decks out of her jacket pocket. Tucked them back out of sight under Logan's watchful eye. "They know I can't call anything." 

A sane precaution. If an annoying one. But - two decks. _Yami let them take his? And they're still in one piece?_

//Xavier was reluctant to allow me to remain near you otherwise.// Ruby narrowed. //And I refuse to lose a good duelist because of a minor inconvenience, Kaiba.//

Minor inconvenience? Kaiba gave Yami a sidelong glance. Took in the Puzzle's annoyed glint. _Minor to you, maybe._ He _wanted_ his dragons. Now. 

Yugi's laughter tickled him. //Try not to want that too hard, Seto. You're still tired... and we're close enough to the Puzzle right now they just might answer. I don't think the ceiling could take it!//

Seto blinked. But - he didn't have his cards.

//Even when the Ghost held it, your Blue Eyes heard your call.// Dark strength wove into him, let him lean on it when Mokuba's grip sparked new pain. //You've found the Heart of the Cards, Kaiba. Mere distance cannot take that away.//

Heart of the Cards. Hmph. Logic and power won duels, not some fickle emotional tie to the fantastic images within his deck-

//You don't really believe that, Seto.// Yugi's thoughts were quiet, but stern as Yami facing down an opponent in the final round. //Not anymore.//

Ha. Kaiba knew the shape of his doubts, gaping darkness in the pit of his soul. Knew the heavy solidity of self-hate and mistrust, rust-edged swords that tore hope and dreams to tatters. Against such a foe as that, a spark of belief in the Heart of the Cards was flimsy as a....

__

A soaring pyramid of white limestone, guiding Ra's rays down from the heavens. He stood near the top, gold still holding dawn's chill on wrists and collarbone, dragon white and warm and faithful by his side. The massive head bent to his, blue meeting blue like sky and lightning and the raging torrent of the Nile over the cataracts.... 

*We remember, Seth. Our caller. Our friend. You who shaped us out of the Shadow Realm, who gave us breath and life and the pharaoh's blessing. We remember.*

__

But... I don't. Almost a plea, to that three-part harmony of wings. He _didn't_ remember. Fragments of scenes, of hope and light and strange familiarity... that wasn't remembering. It couldn't be.

//Nor do I remember. Not more than the faintest of images. But it's enough that you believe, sorcerer.// Ruby glinted, warm as dragon flame. //And you do, Seto Kaiba. You believe in us. And at long last... you believe in yourself.//

"Are the three of you quite finished?" 

Kaiba arched a brow at Xavier, tucking Mokuba to the side. "As if you wouldn't know." 

Tea hid a laugh behind her hand. "He doesn't." Blue eyes danced as she glanced Yami's way. 

Kaiba suppressed his own smile. Hmm. Perhaps there were advantages to having an annoyed Egyptian pharaoh around after all. Occasionally. 

Mokuba frowned. "So how are you going to get Yugi out of my brother's head?" 

Xavier rolled his chair forward. "I had some contact with Janus' mind. And I've observed the rest of the students he affected, now that their... darker selves... appear to have returned on their own. I've an idea of how his powers functioned." Disapproving eyes cut to the King of Games. "Though I could have used _quite a bit_ more time to examine his capabilities." 

Yami didn't so much as shrug. Typical. 

"Well." Xavier drummed fingers on his chair arm. "Given that Janus apparently pulled you out when you were quiescent, Yugi, I think we'd better start by making sure you've released full control of the body to Kaiba-" 

The intercom warbled. "Charles. Have you gotten everything - er, straightened out?" Dr. McCoy asked.

"Not quite, Hank." Xavier flexed his hands. "Though we were about to start." 

"Problem?" Logan put in.

"Indeed." Beast cleared his throat. "Solomon Mouto's on the phone. He'd like to speak with Yugi." 

As one, Yami and Kaiba glanced at each other. 

"He says it's important. Something to do with Joey passing out, and a boy named Ryou?" 

Tea and Mokuba huddled together. "Oh no," Tea murmured. "Poor Ryou. He seemed to be doing okay... you don't think-?"

Who knew, Kaiba thought. The white-haired teen possessed by a tomb robber's spirit could have wreaked any amount of soul-stealing havoc in the short time Yami had been out of Domino City.

Yet another reason to have dragons tap-dance on Xavier's head. As if he needed any more.

"Isis protect us," Yami muttered. 

Kaiba shook his head. "You're going to have to take this one." 

"Kaiba-!" 

The CEO smirked. "It's not as if he'd believe my voice."

"I can't!" 

"It's a phone. Not a demonic spawn of the Devourer's underworld." Kaiba gave the pharaoh a cool glance. "You watch through Yugi's mind most of the time. I'm certain you've seen him use them."

"It's not that!" 

Seto blinked. Ruby had retreated into violet, pacing away. If he didn't know better, he'd say the King of Games appeared - unnerved? 

"You don't want to scare Yugi's grandpa," Mokuba said quietly.

"It would be altogether too easy," Yami admitted, facing away from them. "Yugi is a gentle soul, and I... I have been many things, but never that." 

"No kidding," Logan said dryly. Rubbing his head, as if the memory of a headache had lodged there.

"But he is." Tea blushed, absently wrapping a strand of dark hair around her finger. "Sometimes."

//I'll help.// 

"I know you will, aibou, but-" 

//You can do this, Yami. I believe in you.// Wry warmth. //And then... when we get home, we'll talk to Grandpa. Both of us.//

"A whole new meaning to conference call," Kaiba observed dryly. Glanced at Xavier. "Perhaps you'd better put this on speaker." 

~*~*~*~*~  
_I can do this. I_ will _do this. I shall_... s_ear the mind out of the vile mortal who created this hideous device-_

//Yami!//

//All right, aibou.// Yami pressed the button Logan had indicated. "Grandpa?" 

"Yugi!" For such a small man, Solomon's voice fairly boomed. "How's the visit been so far?"

"Er... somewhat hectic," Yami admitted. _Soft. Keep it soft. And gentle_. "Grandpa, what happened to Joey?" 

"The strangest thing!" In the background Yami could hear the bustle of the shop, a clatter and giggle of Serenity taking apart a 3-D jigsaw puzzle, a few, fervent whispers. "Tristan brought him in; exhausted, apparently, he's snoring on your bed right now. But before they went upstairs, he was mumbling something about a bug and gold fur and Ryou... Yugi, I know you explained that Malik was behind that incident in the hospital, but that young Ryou still strikes me as a bit odd." 

__

Ryou's odd, Yami thought dryly. _Bakura's simply homicidal._ "Could I speak with Tristan, Grandpa?"

"Oh, yes, of course...." Solomon's voice faded out.

A hand fumbled with the phone in Japan. "Yugi?"

"Some might say so," the King of Games replied. 

"Oh. Right...." Tristan paused. "You're on the phone?" 

Yami growled. 

"It's a long story, Taylor. Give us the important details," Kaiba interjected. 

__

"Kaiba?" 

"Details, Tristan," Yami demanded. "Joey?"

"Um. Well. I went to talk to Ryou. And... it was going okay. For a little while... oh, heck." A thump came over the line, as of someone cupping fingers around a receiver. "You're the duelist. Man-Eater Bug versus Milus Radiant."

Yami frowned. Milus Radiant. 300 Attack points, 250 Defense. One of the weakest of Joey's new monsters, a golden, hound-like beast with lapis claws, teeth, and horn. Yet far more deadly on the field than its points promised, for it was a Beast Effect, raising Earth monsters' Attack by 400 and decreasing Wind monsters' Attack by 500. Joey had been quite looking forward to using it in a rematch with Mai. But against a Man-Eater Bug?

"Gold-furred mess on the field," Kaiba put in dryly.

"No, actually... Ryou managed to stop it." 

Stop it? Yami raised a dark brow. "Not your usual duel, I take it."

Tristan sighed. "I think I kind of gave up on _usual_ around you guys after that whole mess with Malik."

Hmm. True. "Is Joey all right?" Milus was a small creature, but if Joey had summoned it... the blond had a spark of magic, but nothing near the raging bonfire that was Kaiba's soul. _Isis and Nephthys must have held their hands over you, truly_.

"Snoring like a log, but since when is that news?" A thump over the line, as if Tristan was scratching his head. "Um. I don't suppose one of you guys could get back here? Just in case? I mean, I know you're supposed to be visiting, and all...." 

"I'll arrange the flight." Humor glinted in Kaiba's gaze. "I still have a program to finish. And it's not as if you have much welcome left here to wear out." 

Silence from Tristan's end. "I probably don't want to know, do I?" 

"Well, it wasn't as bad as Battle City!" Mokuba put in.

"No offense, Mokuba, but that leaves a _lot_ of ground open... oh. Ah, sure, Mr. Mouto."

The phone rattled, changing hands. "You're coming back? So soon?"

"I think I'd better," Yami said honestly. Felt his aibou's prompt, and hid a grin. "Besides, I think Kaiba doesn't want Mokuba going home alone." 

If looks could kill, Kaiba would have had his blood all over the floor. 

"Kaiba? That arrogant young... Yugi, what on earth-?" 

"I'll explain when we get home, Grandpa. I promise." _Ra, don't let Fate make a liar of me_. 

"All right, Yugi." Solomon's voice was quiet, thoughtful. "You take care of yourself, do you hear me?" 

"I will, Grandpa." 

Yami listened to the silence of the empty line, bringing his breathing back to normal. With luck, he wouldn't speak with Solomon again without Yugi's mind safely in his. _I think I'd rather face a rogue lion with only a javelin._

//You did fine.// Yugi let out a mental sigh. //But we better get this over with before he calls back!//

"Not," Kaiba interjected dryly, "Before I get a change of clothes." 

~*~*~*~*~  
_Mind-reading... magic... condition, hmph! Just another excuse to pry into a soul's privacy... how_ dare _he...._

Sprawled in the chair in Seto's soul room, Yugi listened to the CEO's quiet rant. "I think the Professor means well."

//You would.// Angry fingers snapped buttons into place, smoothed a tailored blue shirt over bandages with practiced ease. //I swear to you, Yugi, one of the vilest phrases ever created is "It's for your own good." _Damn_ him. Damn them both-!//

Yugi winced, feeling what Kaiba was trying not to think. "I won't tell Yami. Not if you don't want me to."

Fingers hesitated on Kaiba's locket. //But....//

"We share our minds. But I don't have to tell him what I saw. What Janus... made you remember." Yugi poked at the computer, wondering at the solidity of detail. He'd bet if he could find a way to take off its cover, every circuit would be wired in place. "That's private. I didn't mean to see it, but I did. And I'm not sorry I saw it, but it _is_ private."

Confusion swirled through the room, lifted sunlit drapes like a silent breeze. Yugi felt Kaiba stalling for time to think, sensed him move toward mirror-flash with a brush and impatient strokes to pillow-mussed hair-

//YUGI!// 

Chill gripping him, Yugi pushed forward. //Kaiba? What's-//

They were looking at the dresser mirror. There was Kaiba's reflection, and the faint ghost of his own; like Yami's, when they were holding a morning conversation before school.

Seto wasn't even glancing at his shadow. Blue was fixed on wide, wondering blue, and shivering.

__

It's not me, that can't be me, never me-

//Kaiba,// Yugi said softly. Seeing the traces of himself in a face suddenly open and vulnerable. //Seto. It's all right.//

__

Never all right, not me, I don't look like that. I've never looked like that. I've never been that warm, that- Kaiba shied from the thought.

//Seto Mitzura, listen to me!//

Kaiba sucked in a breath, as if he'd been struck. Rage and grief and pain- //That is not my name!//

Yugi let that half-truth swirl past him. Seto'd paid in blood for Kaiba; he had the right to deny any other name. Even his own. //It's just an echo. It happens to me, when Yami senses we're about to merge our minds. I wasn't trying to block you out, and you don't know how to block me, so it just... happened.// He wrapped his current partner in his surety. //Don't worry. Once I'm out, you'll be fine.// 

"Then let's get this over with," Kaiba growled, stalking toward the stairs and the library. "And so far as Yami and whatever _doubtful_ impressions you might have garnered from a madman are concerned...."

//Yes?//

Struggle. Hesitation. Fists clenched, before Kaiba flung open the library door and stepped through. //...Do what you want.//

Hands on his lap, Xavier observed the smoldering CEO, the knuckles bone-pale where Yami gripped a wooden chair. "It would be best if you both sat down." 

Eyes locked, the two rivals took matching seats. 

Yugi sighed. //Would you two _relax_ already? This isn't a duel!// 

//Sorry, aibou. I'm not entirely pleased with this plan.//

Kaiba snorted. "_You're_ not?" Scowled. "Where are the others?"

"Untangling psyches is delicate work. Even Jean's presence would be a distraction." Xavier arched a brow. "You can hear him?"

"Yugi can." Kaiba's lips pressed into a thin line. "Finish this." 

"I'd ask you to try to remain calm, but I can see that would be a lost cause," Xavier murmured. "I believe physical contact would facilitate the transfer." 

Yami cradled the Puzzle in his hands, holding it away from his chest. Met Kaiba's gaze, ruby to sapphire. 

Yugi felt the CEO steel himself. Reach out-

__

Contact.

Warm gold. Shadow magic, cool and soothing as a spring breeze. The desert heat of Yami's mind, calling to his own.

And a swirl of reality, sucking down-

"Oof!" Marble floors, polished within an inch of their life. Yugi brushed himself off, leaning on a blue-painted wall as he got back to his feet. _Wait a minute. I know this wall._

"Yugi?" Kaiba's footsteps rang through a familiar doorway a heartbeat before the young man stepped through, echoing in that odd way Yugi recognized from countless visits to his own soul room. "Where are we?" 

"Just outside your soul room. This is the corridor to the rest of your mind. How you reach out to your body." Yugi listened down the hall, catching a second set of footsteps. 

Kaiba's head jerked toward the sound. Blue eyes narrowed. "That's not Yami." 

"No," Yugi agreed. "Come on!" 

"Odd mental imagery," the telepath was muttering as they rounded a last corner. "Corridors instead of landscapes; very closed personalities. I should be able to draw the two together, and yet-" Xavier turned, steps light and assured. "Ah. There you are." 

"You're standing," Kaiba said accusingly. Eyed the starry dark beyond Xavier, where walls and floor and all seemed to fade into shadows. "Where are we now?" 

"This is the realm of the mind, Kaiba. The very edge of yours, as close as we can get to Yami." Xavier looked down to meet Yugi's gaze. "I don't want to fling you loose, as Janus did. We've no assurance that Yami would be able to reacquire you. You might end up cast out, a wandering mind without form. Or you might end up in another mind entirely; possibly one not as able to accommodate your presence as Kaiba's." The Professor rubbed his temples, stared into the mist. "If we can form a temporary link between your minds, Kaiba could release you to Yami with the minimum amount of damage. Yet... Yami's mind is...." 

"Dangerous," Yugi said quietly. "I know."

Amusement caressed them. //I heard that, aibou.//

"He's close." _So close_, Yugi thought wistfully, standing on the very edge of shadows. Almost close enough to reach out and touch.

Xavier laid a hand on Yugi's shoulder, beckoned Kaiba closer. "I can provide the form, but the substance must be yours." He accepted the scowling CEO's grip. "Try to get closer to Yami." 

"But that's the end of the hall," Yugi protested. Yet... Yami was so close. So close.

...And a foot of stone solidified from mist, marble and colored blocks intermingled. 

"Floor, but not a corridor," Kaiba muttered, eyeing the shadows still pressing close. 

Yugi swallowed, sensing the hungry absence behind the façade of innocent fog. "Um... it's a long way down." 

"This should be enough. If we tread carefully." Xavier studied the stones a long moment more, nodded. "One step at a time." 

Hand in hand with Kaiba, Yugi frowned in concentration. Form the blocks. Fit them around Kaiba's rough marble, and try to skirt the gaps as the two stones met. Keep moving toward that shadowy sense of Yami, the distant echoes of a familiar corridor between two soul rooms.... 

And violet-black granite snaked out of the mists, seizing blocks and marble in a flash of golden light. 

__

The Puzzle! 

Familiar arms closed around him, the voice so like his own murmuring ancient endearments. "_Miw-sher, mery-i._ Sa, sa, I have you...." 

Yugi lifted his head from that comforting shoulder, taking in the reassuring sight of the corridor between their soul rooms; the violet-black, twisted stone of Yami's side meeting and mingling with the bright-colored blocks that surrounded the door to his room of light and toys. "I'm back?" 

The spirit chuckled. "With guests, it would seem." Reluctantly easing his grip, Yami gave Yugi a roguish grin, and stalked silently up to tap a gaping Kaiba on the shoulder. 

The programmer started, jerking his eyes from the colorful games and stuffed animals spilled over a room full of sunlight. "You." Blue eyes glanced between the bright warmth and the darkly grinning King of Games. "That's not your room, is it." 

"No, this one's mine," Yugi said cheerfully. Kaiba's was okay, but it felt _so_ much better to be home. "That one's Yami's." He pointed toward dark stone, where the Horus eye was carved on a door solid and foreboding as a pharaoh's tomb.

Kaiba stepped clear of the doorway, gaze searching for an exit. "I'll take your word for that." 

"You will not." Yami's tone was friendly, but unyielding as carved stone. "Kaiba. Allow me to grant you the same courtesy you showed my hikari." 

Blue eyes widened slightly, and Yugi found himself caught between a giggle and a sigh. _Poor Kaiba. Always looking for the trap_. "Please, Seto? We don't get much chance to show off." 

"Show off?" Yami murmured, as Kaiba fell in reluctantly behind them. 

"Well, we are, aren't we?" 

"Hmm." Yami's smirk softened into a smile as he touched the carved eye. Granite grating on granite, heavy stone slid aside. 

Kaiba stepped into the labyrinth, swallowing dryly as he took in the endless ranks of doors, the countless stone stairs twisting in ways gravity had never intended. Took a breath of the endless, chill darkness that reigned here, waiting to suck down any who strayed in unwanted....

Yami's hand blocked the programmer's attempt to bolt. "You granted my hikari safe refuge in your soul room, Kaiba. You're in no danger from mine." The spirit's face was calm, gentle as it never could be dueling. 

Yugi felt Kaiba's curiosity warring with caution as the CEO eyed his two rivals. "I don't pry into other people's... privacy," Kaiba bit out.

"If I've left the door open, you're not prying." Yami lifted his hand, indicated the endless corridors. "We won't allow you to be lost." 

"Yami?" Yugi murmured as Kaiba picked his way up a set of stairs. 

"Shh. Let him get a bit farther, aibou." 

A blue trench coat fluttered through the first door, and Yugi pinned his darker self with a look. "What are you doing?"

"Allowing the Puzzle a chance to remember him." A familiar smirk was dancing in ruby eyes. "It shouldn't take long. You brought back the flavor of his magic, and Seto has more of Seth in him than he'll ever admit."

"_What_ shouldn't take long...." Yugi felt the first subtle tremor of the Puzzle's power, and clapped a hand to his head in disbelief. "Yami! He's going to kill you."

Yami chuckled softly. "It wouldn't be the first time he tried-" The spirit's head jerked up, ruby gaze narrowed. "Something's wrong." 

Yugi gulped. He could feel it; a sense of doors being pried open, of relentless curiosity circling closer and closer to the gaping wounds Janus had left in another mind. "Oh no. He wouldn't!"

Kaiba tore down the stairs, heading for his soul's corridor at a dead run. "Xavier!" 

__

"No!" Yugi and Yami grabbed him, held him inside the labyrinth. 

"Seto, don't!" Yugi pleaded, dragging on one infuriated arm. "You know the path isn't stable! If you don't cross it slowly-" 

"That's my mind! My memories!" The sorcerer struggled, shadows glimmering about his hands. "Let go of me!" 

__

"No." The Puzzle glowed around two throats, bright as the eye on Yami's forehead. _"We're not going to lose you."_

"He has trespassed in your soul, Kaiba," the darkness growled. "And for that, he _will_ pay." 

~*~*~*~*~  
"Look. I know you want to see them." Logan stood in front of the library door, a glowering, metal-clawed sentinel of doom. "But the Professor said he needs quiet if this is going to work, and he's going to get it." 

__

I'm not going to scream. I'm not going to scream. Tea tapped her foot in frustration, ticking off her mental to-do list. Yugi's stuff was packed... not that he'd had much chance to unpack. Mokuba said he had his luggage together; she and Kaiba would probably be able to find anything he'd missed. She'd even helped Mokuba go through some of the Duel Monsters cards he'd brought with him, sorting together forty that seemed right. They were set. As soon as everybody was back where they belonged... well, Yugi and Mokuba would head back where they belonged.

__

So where do I belong? If I come here to dance - if I follow my dream to New York....

The Millennium Items had come to Domino City, and so far they seemed determined to stay there. And every time they started acting weird, she got caught in the middle. Some might call that a good reason to get out of town for good.

Only her best friend was right in the middle of the weirdness. For good, for now, and forever.

Leave Domino, and she'd leave Yugi. 

__

But... duelists travel. The good ones go all over the world. Just look at Kaiba, and Mai. Mai even told you Joey was good enough to do it - though she warned you not to breathe a word of that until he's finished school. 

Tea shook away the thought. First things first. She'd lived in New York before, though only for a little while, swept along as her father's job moved them from Domino to America and back. Time to check out what was real, and what was just colored by a child's memory. Check out the schools, check out the atmosphere; see if something felt right. Or wrong.

Besides, if Bayville was any example, New York had more than its own share of weirdness.

__

Weird magic, or weird mutants? Which do you think you can handle? 

Which do you want _to?_

Tea tapped again, absently noting how the rhythm blended with Mokuba's pacing. Jazz it up a little, maybe add a half-beat....

"The Professor's fixed a lot of minds," Kurt said, tossing a pencil back and forth. One hand missed a grab; his tail snatched it, threw it Kitty's way. 

"Think she got that by now, Kurt." The brunette caught the pencil between two hands, threw him a glare before settling back against the wall, nibbling her lip. Apparently Xavier wanted to talk to them both as soon as he was done. 

__

Talk, sure, Tea thought. She'd seen teachers crossed before. These two were going to be seriously in for it. _Maybe I can help. If I could talk to the Professor first... he doesn't_ know _Yami. He's never felt...._ She fought down a blush. _When Yami says "Trust me", you don't think. You just - do. Because_ he _trusts you, and he trusts himself, and how could you ever turn your back on that...._

Kitty tilted her head at Tea. "So if you're not worried about the whole mind-meld mess, what are you worried about?"

__

"Penalty game!" 

That! Tea flung herself at the door, closing her ears against the scream. _Oh, please don't let anybody be dead, please...._

Logan was already inside, growling as he held a groaning Xavier's shoulder. A snarl rippled his lips.

"Um..." Violet eyes went wide, fixed on the growling mutant as the leather-clad teen backed toward a corner. "Help?" 

"Yugi!" Tea hugged her friend close, feeling worry lift off like lead weights. If Logan wanted to do anything, he'd have to go through her first.

"Logan..." The Professor's voice was shaky, but sane. 

"Charles?" Wolverine's tone was dark. "You okay?"

Tea gulped. The last time she'd heard a voice like that, Bakura had decided someone had to die. 

"There's a particularly abominable folksong resounding through my head, but... more or less." Xavier rubbed his head. "Sabretooth with a chainsaw, indeed." 

A familiar cold snort echoed behind her. "I told you to stay out of my affairs." 

"Big brother!" Mokuba swarmed into Kaiba's lap, wrapped his arms around his brother's neck as the programmer stood. "You're all right!" 

Kaiba let his head dip into dark hair for a long moment, holding his brother close. "Yes." He pulled back enough to meet Mokuba's gaze. "Are you packed?"

"Yeah. But I was just thinking...." Mokuba snuggled close again, whispering.

__

Oh boy. They're up to something. Tea rolled her eyes, held onto Yugi's hand as she tried to discreetly usher them both out of the room. Just outside the door she saw Kurt and Kitty glance at each other, start sneaking away.

//Don't think you two are off the hook.//

Mid-sneak, the teenage mutants froze.

//Kurt, Kitty, in here. Now.//

"Nice try," Tea mouthed at them as she and Yugi slipped out into the hall. 

"Whew!" Yugi let a breath sigh out as they put a hall bookcase between them and direct line-of-sight of the library door. "That was a little _too_ close." He took her right hand. "Hold still?" 

"Um..." His finger was tickling over her palm; long straight line, shorter straight line across, a loop to crown it... and a subtle glow of gold that sank into her skin like water into parched ground. "Yugi, what-?"

"Ankh," he murmured, just a trace of ruby glimmering in his gaze. "And sa." His fingertip shaped a bent horseshoe curve on her left palm, gold and dark at once. "Life, and protection." 

__

Not Yugi, Tea realized, feeling heat rush to her cheeks. _But not Yami either_. It was both of them; that heart-stopping, enticing blend most saw only when he dueled. "What'd you just do?"

"It's a protection spell." His smile was shy and knowing at once, warming her to her toes. "Not a strong one, I don't want to draw anything to you, just more like... well, a tripwire. If you don't mind?"

Mind? Mind feeling warm, and safe, and cared about? And he was right here, and so close... she lifted a hand to his cheek, leaned down just enough to bring them eye to eye. "Yami Yugi...." 

"Don't look, Mokuba." Kaiba's voice was dry, and all too amused. "It'll rot your brain." 

"Seto-!"

Tea turned bright red, hearing Yami mutter something that had to be rude in Ancient Egyptian. "How long have you been there?" Yugi sighed. 

"Long enough." Azure eyes held a glint of laughter as Kaiba took out his cell phone, there and gone almost before Tea realized she'd seen it. "The cab should be here. Are you ready?" 

"Just a minute!" Mokuba yanked open the library door, ignoring the raised voices as he dashed in. Tea heard the Professor halt mid-lecture, an indistinguishable cheerful murmur of English from Mokuba-

"Say _what?_" Kitty's shocked voice echoed into the hall.

"Bye!" Mokuba skidded back into the hall, heading for the front door with a grin almost as wicked as his brother's when Kaiba was about to blow something up. "Come on, nii-sama!" 

Tea gaped, but moved. "Do you-?"

"I don't think I _want_ to know," Yugi muttered, snatching his backpack and suitcase as they headed for the front door.

Kaiba was drawing up the rear, glancing back as the students and their dazed professors filtered into the front hall to see them off. Kitty especially was hanging back, ducking away from piercing blue eyes. "What did you say to Pryde, Mokuba? Why is she looking at me like that?" 

Backpack in hand, Mokuba just grinned. "Bye, big brother! Have a nice time!" 

"Mokuba...." Kaiba crossed his arms in frustration as the doors swung closed behind his black-haired tormentor. "Just wait, little brother. Revenge will be mine." 

"Kaiba!" Yugi gave him a look of exasperation. "Maybe it was something nice."

A chestnut brow arched. "_You've_ never had a little brother." Kaiba looked Tea's way, coolly curious. Slid a speaking glance toward spiky hair.

__

Why can't the floor open up and swallow me.... Deep breaths, Tea. You can do this. Just... forget Kaiba's there, and the Professor's over there, and there's all these people watching....

And... Yugi was looking at her in innocent confusion.

__

Arggh. Yami, why can't you clue him in?

Probably because Yugi hadn't asked him to. Because Yugi... didn't have a clue. Darn it.

Tea hugged her friend. "Take care of yourself." Backing off a step, she held out two decks. "Um... not sure which one of these...."

Two hands came down; Yugi's on the deck in her right hand, Kaiba's on her left. Kaiba took that deck, turned up a card. 

__

Blue Eyes White Dragon. Tea shook her head. "Why do I even ask?" 

~*~*~*~*~  
Knees to her chest as she perched on a thick oak limb, Kitty felt tremors through the tree-trunk and sighed. It was chill, mist beading in droplets on her blue jacket, weather none of her fellow students would consider fit to be out in. Which wouldn't stop her current visitor. "Should've known it was too quiet to last." 

"Hey, Half-pint." Logan climbed up to a nearby branch, fingers gripping damp bark easily as most people held onto subway straps. He glanced back over his shoulder toward the dim green sward close by; you could see the back lawn from here, but from the ground this was just one more patch of leaves. "Jean just got back from her trip with Tea." 

Kitty shrugged. She'd had to skip the dance school trips; the Professor was on a grounding spree. _Gee, one little let-yourself-get-possessed-by-a-card gig, and you're untrustworthy for life. Major suckage._

The irony of it was, all the New Mutants Janus had messed with seemed to be fine. The Professor had kept them a day for observation, had Beast do a couple blood tests to make sure they were clear, then let them off the hook. Heck, Tabitha was even going to a party later tonight.

__

Get taken over by the bad guys, you get off, Kitty mused. _Help one of the good guys - well, sort of good guys - and "we can't allow you off the grounds until we're certain there are no unforeseen side effects". Oh yeah, Professor. Real fair._

Kurt was fine, beating up on video games upstairs. But if Kaiba hadn't asked her to help him put in the security program, she'd have gone stir-crazy.

__

Now I'm just going another kind of crazy. And it is. Crazy, I mean. Kaiba? You've got to be kidding. 

But Mokuba had seemed so impishly sure. Grinning up at her, even as he used the opportunity of a goodbye hug to surreptitiously plant a packet in her jacket pocket.

__

Talk about trouble in a small package. I swear all that black hair's hiding the pointed ears.

Logan leaned back against the trunk. "Charles told Jean you two were done with the security program. She thought she'd find you wearing out shoes in your room with Top 40 blasting."

"Like, duh," Kitty muttered. "That's why I'm not there."

"Huh. And I thought it was for the view."

The quiet humor in his tone poked through her fog of distraction. "What view?"

"One that's coming up. Shhh." A wry smile tugged at Wolverine's mouth as he stared intently toward the edge of the Institute's lawn.

A dark blue trench coat swirled out of the mist. Cool blue eyes scanned this edge of the lawn, searching for other figures. Relaxed minutely.

Kitty didn't need Logan's warning glance to freeze. _Kaiba's... taking off his coat? What's he doing?_

Stretching, apparently; like a dancer, warming up for practice. But Kaiba didn't dance....

__

I so _take that back. _

Long fingers cupped air, shaped it in sweeps of arms and feet. Slow, gentle motions; a flow from stance to stance that reminded her of a brook over rocks, of the beating ocean tide. Ever-changing. Ever-constant.

__

Wow. That's just... wow. 

"Huh." Somehow Logan had shifted near her perch; his voice was almost in her ear. "Looks like Tai Chi, with a little Aikido on the side. Definitely some street-fighting extras thrown in." 

Street-fighting? Kaiba was practicing a martial art? "It's so slow," Kitty whispered. _So beautiful._

"It's _practiced_ slow," Logan murmured back. "He gets into a fight, all he does is speed up and the other guy's a broken pile on the ground." 

Ouch. Yeah, that sounded like Kaiba, all right. And like-

Almost against her will, Kitty's thoughts went to the perilous package in her jacket.

Hands froze mid-grab, swept back to his sides as Kaiba walked toward their perch. "Who's there?" 

Logan dropped through the branches, landing with a soft thump. "How'd you know?" 

"You? But-" Frowning, Kaiba looked past him. "Come out." 

Fumbling her way down, Kitty managed a weak grin. _I'm so dead._

"You didn't hear her," Logan stated as she rounded the oak. "I know you didn't see her; she learned from me. How'd you know?" 

"I...." Kaiba shook his head. "She reached for her deck." 

Logan's eyebrows jumped. "She didn't move." He glanced toward her. "Charles know you have a deck?"

__

So right, I didn't move, Kitty thought, deliberately keeping her hand away from her pocket. "Um... no?" 

"Physical contact helps. It isn't necessary." Azure eyes studied her, as if she were a line of code hiding some unexpected feature. "I... once affected one of my own cards, miles away." His gaze turned distant. "I should have known there was something odd at work then. Pegasus' men had tracked me to the lab. They should have had me. But it was _my_ move, and everything just seemed to fall into place...." 

Taking a deep breath, Kitty took out the packet. Flipped up the first beautiful, perilous card. _Dark Magician Girl. Go figure._ "So is this your move, or Yami's?" 

"Mokuba's," Kaiba said dryly. "He thinks you'll need it." The programmer picked up his trench coat. "He's probably right. Anyone who's been near Yami tends to attract things. Even Tristan, and he doesn't duel." 

"Things?" Logan said darkly.

"Oddness. Magic. People obsessed with conquering the world, or saving it. If you happen to see an Egyptian man with a turban, an ankh, and a set of golden scales, run." A grim smile tugged at cool lips. "Or blast him with a Dark Burning Attack, and then run. I hold honest tournaments. Mysterious interlopers showing up to manipulate duelists into unleashing mystical beasts were _not_ part of the program."

Gold glimmered through the mist as Kaiba settled into his trench coat; Kitty frowned. "What happened to your locket?"

Fingers hesitated, involuntarily tracing new lines of gold across the brown swirl of the card back, a there-yet-not-there shimmer that curved to form a subtle Horus eye. The blue gaze darkened. "I suspect I'll have to ask Yugi." 

"His locket?" Logan sniffed. Drew back, startled. "Smells like the Puzzle. How?" 

Kitty blinked. "You mean, you don't see that?"

"Kid, I think you see things the rest of us don't," Logan said seriously. Nodded at her deck. "You keeping that?"

"Um..." Eyeing Seto's stance, Kitty wondered herself. _Tall, dark, brooding... kind of like Scott. Only I don't think Scott would swing a pillow if his kid brother asked. If Jean asked, but...._ She fought back a blush. _Oh man, that way lies trouble._

"What?" Kaiba said, exasperated. "I don't know what Mokuba may have said to you, but I do _not_ eat small children for breakfast."

__

Small?! Kitty bristled, drawing herself up to... damn it, somewhere near his chest height. _Great. So much for staring down the guy._ "So why don't you tell him to set you up with an Amazon next time?"

Kaiba blinked at her, the slightest hint of confusion touching the cool gaze. "What?" 

"Guys! You're all alike!" Kitty flung up her hands, closed fingers hastily over her deck before the wind could tug it free. "I am so out of here." 

Long strides caught up to her. "Explain, Pryde." 

Kitty tossed back dark hair, Valley Girl to the core. _And the Professor says I don't pay attention in his Comparative Culture seminars... he's Japanese, they like women polite, this ought to put him off for good._ "Like I'm saying anything more to you!" 

Falling in on her other side, Logan cleared his throat. "He said," Logan said dryly, "That you were really a good guy under it all - _way_ under it all - that you love having duelists around who can stand up to you, and Yugi said you thought she was cute in that blue-and-pink card outfit. And that if she gave you half a chance, she'd like you."

Kaiba made a strangled noise. 

"So how many times has your kid brother used _that_ line?" Kitty sniffed. Glared at Kaiba... who seemed to be frozen in place, staring at her like a particularly lethal monster that had materialized in his dueling arena.

"Wasn't a line," Logan said quietly. 

Oh. Oops.

And blue eyes were fixed on hers, wild and dangerous and beautiful as the dragon he'd called from shadows. Kitty could see sleek white curves rise around him, frail as mist; feel the soul-wind of beating wings....

__

Blink.

Blue eyes shot away, glancing at his watch. "I have to go." 

Logan's hand on her shoulder held her when she would have followed. "Uh-uh," he breathed, watching the programmer stride swiftly away. "You want to catch him? Then let him go. For now." 

Which made less than no sense. Kitty shook her head. "Who says I _want_ to catch that guy?" 

Logan eyed her. "This is me, Shadowcat. Not the Prof." He dropped his gaze to the deck in her hands. 

Biting her lip, Kitty held it out. "Guess you want this." 

Logan shook his head. "Just be careful." He looked up. "They're not safe. Kaiba's not safe. That kid's got scars, and I'm not talking about the ones on his back." His hand squeezed lightly on her shoulder. "But you're an X-Man, kiddo. You want danger, you've earned it." 

Kitty managed a smile. "This mean you're taking me out for driving practice again?"

__

"No."

Familiar thuds split the air; a black helicopter swooped down, lowering near the outside of the mansion gates. Hovered there a long minute; rose and swept in a clean arc away. 

From one window, Kitty saw Tea wave.

Logan chuckled. "Gotta admit, the kid has style."

Yeah. Yeah, he did. 

And Mokuba had left a few email addresses in her deck. 

__

So what's the time difference between here and Japan? 

~*~*~*~*~

Ancient Egyptian: 

__

Miw-sher, mery-i. - Kitten, my beloved. 

Note: We haven't seen it in Evolution, but in the comics, Shadowcat has both astral sight and a strong streak of dark magic. 


End file.
